The Excel QUARTILE Function

QUARTILE & QUARTILE.INC Functions

In Excel 2010, the QUARTILE function has been replaced by the Quartile.Inc function.

Although it has been replaced, the Quartile function is still available in Excel 2010 (stored in the list of compatibility functions), to allow compatibility with earlier versions of Excel.

However, the Quartile function may not be available in future versions of Excel, so it is advised that you use the Quartile.Inc function if possible.

Related Function:

PERCENTILE

Function Description

The Excel QUARTILE function returns a requested quartile of a supplied range of values.

The syntax of the function is:

QUARTILE( array, quart )

Where the function arguments are:

array	-	The range of data values for which you want to calculate the specified quartile.
quart	-	An integer between 0 and 4, representing the required quartile.

If the requested quartile falls between two of the values in the supplied array, Excel interpolates between these values to calculate the quartile value.

Note that the Excel Quartile function is closely related to the Excel Percentile function in that:

The 1st quartile is the same as the 25th percentile;
The 2nd quartile is the same as the 50th percentile;
The 3rd quartile is the same as the 75th percentile;
The 4th quartile is the same as the 100th percentile (and is equal to the maximum value in the range).

Quartile Function Examples

The spreadsheet below shows examples of the Excel Quartile function, used to calculate the quartiles of the set of values 0-6 (stored in cells A1-A7 of the example spreadsheet).

Formulas:

	A	B
1	2	=QUARTILE( A1:A7, 0 )
2	1	=QUARTILE( A1:A7, 1 )
3	6	=QUARTILE( A1:A7, 2 )
4	4	=QUARTILE( A1:A7, 3 )
5	3	=QUARTILE( A1:A7, 4 )
6	5
7	0

Results:

	A	B
1	2	0
2	1	1.5
3	6	3
4	4	4.5
5	3	6
6	5
7	0

Note that in the above examples:

The 1st quartile (calculated in cell B2) falls half way between the values of 1 and 2. Therefore, Excel has interpolated the data, to produce the result 1.5;
The 3rd quartile (calculated in cell B4) falls half way between the values of 4 and 5. Therefore Excel has interpolated the data, to produce the result, 4.5.

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

Quartile Function Errors

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

Common Errors

#NUM!

Occurs if either:

The supplied value of quart is is < 0 or > 4

The supplied array is empty.

#VALUE!

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

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