The Excel PERCENTILE.INC Function

Related Functions:

PERCENTILE.INC & PERCENTILE.EXC Functions

The Percentile.Inc and Percentile.Exc functions both find the k'th percentile of a supplied data set.

The difference between these two functions is that, in the Percentile.Inc function the value of k is is within the range 0 to 1 inclusive, and in the Percentile.Exc function, the value of k is within the range 0 to 1 exclusive.

Function Description

The Excel Percentile.Inc function returns the k'th percentile (i.e. the value below which k% of the data values fall) for a supplied range of values and a supplied k (between 0 & 1 inclusive).

The function is new in Excel 2010 and so is not available in earlier versions of Excel. However, Percentile.Inc is simply an updated version of the old Percentile function, which is available in earlier versions of Excel.

The syntax of the Percentile.Inc function is:

PERCENTILE.INC( array, k )

Where the function arguments are:

array	-	The array of data values for which you want to calculate the k'th percentile.
k	-	The value, between 0 and 1 (inclusive), of the required percentile.

If k is not a multiple of 1/(n-1), (where n is the number of values in the supplied array), the Percentile.Inc function interpolates between the values in the supplied array, to calculate the percentile value.

Percentile.Inc Function Examples

Column B of the spreadsheet below shows four examples of the Excel Percentile.Inc function, used to calculate the k'th percentile of the set of values in cells A1-A6. In each case, a different value of k is specified.

Formulas:

	A	B
1	0	=PERCENTILE.INC( A1:A6, 0.2 )
2	1	=PERCENTILE.INC( A1:A6, 60% )
3	2	=PERCENTILE.INC( A1:A6, 50% )
4	3	=PERCENTILE.INC( A1:A6, 95% )
5	4
6	5

Results:

	A	B
1	0	1
2	1	3
3	2	2.5
4	3	4.75
5	4
6	5

Note that in the above examples:

The value of k can be input as a decimal or a percentage. For example, value 0.2 in cell B1, is the same as 20% (the 20th percentile);
The 50th percentile (see cell B3) falls half way between the values of 2 and 3. Therefore, in this case, Excel has interpolated, to calculate the result 2.5;
The 95th percentile (see cell B4) falls 75% of the way between 4 and 5. Therefore, in this case, Excel has interpolated, to calculate the result 4.75.

For further examples of the Excel Percentile.Inc function, see the Microsoft Office website

Percentile.Inc Function Errors

If you get an error from the Excel Percentile.Inc function this is likely to be one of the following:

Common Errors

#NUM!

Occurs if either:

The supplied value of k is < 0 or > 1

The supplied array is empty.

#VALUE!

Occurs if the supplied value of k is non-numeric.

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