The Excel FDIST Function
FDIST and F.DIST.RT
In Excel 2010, the Fdist function has been replaced by the F.Dist.Rt function, which has improved accuracy.
Although it has been replaced, the Fdist function is still available in Excel 2010 (stored in the list of compatibility functions), to allow compatibility with earlier versions of Excel.
However, the Fdist function may not be available in future versions of Excel, so it is advised that you use the F.Dist.Rt function if possible.
Related Function:
FINV
Function Description
The Excel FDIST function calculates the (right-tailed) F Probability Distribution, which measures the degree of diversity between two data sets.
The syntax of the function is:
FDIST( x, deg_freedom1,
deg_freedom2 )
Where the function arguments are:
| x | - | The (positive) numeric value at which the function is to be evaluated. |
| deg_freedom1 | - | An integer specifying the numerator degrees of freedom. |
| deg_freedom2 | - | An integer specifying the denominator degrees of freedom. |
If either deg_freedom1 or deg_freedom2 are decimal numbers, these are truncated to integers by Excel.
Fdist Function Example
F Prob. Distribution with deg_freedom1 = 1 & deg_freedom2 = 2
The above chart on the right shows the right-tailed F Probability Distribution with the numerator degrees of freedom equal to 1 and the denominator degrees of freedom equal to 2.
If you want to use Excel to calculate the value of this function at x = 5, this can be done using the Fdist function, as follows:
=FDIST( 5, 1, 2 )
This gives the result 0.154845745.
For further details and examples of the Excel Fdist function, see the Microsoft Office website.
Fdist Function Errors
If you get an error from the Excel Fdist function this is likely to be one of the following:
Common Errors
| #NUM! | - |
Occurs if either:
|
| #VALUE! | - | Occurs if any of the supplied arguments is non-numeric. |