The Excel NORM.S.DIST Function

Related Functions:
NORM.DIST
NORM.S.INV
Standard Normal Cumulative Distribution

The Standard Normal Distribution is a simplified version of the Normal Distribution Function which arises when the mean of the distribution is 0 and the standard deviation is 1.

Therefore, the Excel Norm.S.Dist function is the same as the Excel Norm.Dist function with the mean and standard_dev arguments set to 0 and 1 respectively.

Function Description

The Excel NORM.S.DIST function calculates the Standard Normal Distribution Function for a supplied value.

The Norm.S.Dist function is new in Excel 2010 and so is not available in earlier versions of Excel. However, the function is an updated version of the Normsdist function, which is available in earlier versions of Excel.

The syntax of the Norm.S.Dist function is:

NORM.S.DIST( z, cumulative )

Where the function arguments are as follows:

z - The value at which you want to evaluate the function.
cumulative -

A logical argument that denotes the type of distribution to be returned:

TRUE = Normal Cumulative Distribution Function;
FALSE = Normal Density Function.


Norm.S.Dist Function Examples

Example 1 - Standard Normal Density Function

Plot of Standard Normal Probability Density Function
Standard Normal Density Function

The above chart on the right shows the Standard Normal Density Function.

If you want to calculate the value of this function at z = 0.5, this can be done using the Excel Norm.S.Dist function, as follows:

=NORM.S.DIST( 0.5, FALSE )

This gives the result 0.352065327.


Example 2 - Standard Cumulative Distribution Function

Plot of Standard Normal Cumulative Distribution Function
Standard Normal Cumulative Distribution Function

The above chart on the right shows the Standard Normal Cumulative Distribution Function.

If you want to calculate the value of this function at z = 0.8, this can be done using the Excel Norm.S.Dist function, as follows:

=NORM.S.DIST( 0.8, TRUE )

This gives the result 0.788144601.


For further information and examples of the Excel Norm.S.Dist function, see the Microsoft Office website.


Norm.S.Dist Function Error

If you get an error from the Excel Norm.S.Dist function this is likely to be the #VALUE! error:

Common Error
#VALUE! - Occurs if any of the supplied arguments is non-numeric.