The Excel MULTINOMIAL Function
Function Description
The Excel Multinomial function calculates the ratio of the factorial of a sum of supplied values to the product of factorials of those values.
I.e.
The syntax of the Multinomial function is:
MULTINOMIAL( number1, [number2], ... )
where the number arguments are one or more integers (or arrays of integers) for which you want to calculate the multinomial.
Note that:
- If any of the supplied values are decimals, these are truncated to integers.
- In current versions of Excel (Excel 2007 and later), you can supply up to 255 number arguments to the Multinomial function, but in Excel 2003, the Multinomial function can only accept up to 29 arguments.
Multinomial Function Example
In cell B1 of the spreadsheet below, the Excel Multinomial Function is used to calculate the multinomial of four values that are stored in column A of the spreadsheet.
| A | B | C | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3 | =MULTINOMIAL( A1:A4 ) | - returns the value 27,720 |
| 2 | 1 | ||
| 3 | 2 | ||
| 4 | 5 |
The above example shows that the multinomial of the four values 3, 1, 2 and 5 is 27,720.
Further details and examples of the Excel Multinomial function are provided on the Microsoft Office website.
Excel Multinomial Function Errors
If you get an error from the Excel Multinomial Function, this is likely to be one of the following:
Common Errors
| #NUM! | - | Occurs if any of the supplied values are less than 0. |
| #VALUE! | - | Occurs if any of the supplied values are non-numeric. |