EXCEL COMMANDS

This is a catalog of Excel commands

and procedures for statistics that we
may use. The examples given below
apply to data in a column format like
the example to the right. These examples apply to data that is in rows 2
through 4 and in column A; you may
have to adjust these to apply the formulas below.

1
2
3
4

A
x
20
18
23

FOR

STATISTICS
Tips

You can generally click and drag over

data rather than typing its cell positions.
After selecting data with the mouse,
some summary statistics are given in
the lower right corner.
The Sort button can sort data into order.
You can copy-and-paste by clicking
and dragging the little black box in
the lower right corner of a cell.

Commands

=AVERAGE(A2:A4) gives you x , the sample

mean

=MAX(A2:A4) gives you the sample maximum

=MIN(A2:A4) gives you the sample minimum
=STDEV.S(A2:A4) gives you s, the sample
standard deviation

=STDEV.P(A2:A4) gives you , the population

standard deviation; this is only to be used
if your data set represents the entire population.

=QUARTILE.EXC(A2:A4,1) gives you Q 1;

=QUARTILE.EXC(A2:A4,3) gives you Q 3 ,

17

=LN(17) gives you ln 17

=MEDIAN(A2:A4) gives you the sample median

the third quartile.

=SQRT(17) gives you

=EXP(17) gives you e17

=COMBIN(n,k)
gives the binomial coefficient

n
k

=SLOPE( y -values, x -values) gives the

slope of a regression line

=INTERCEPT( y -values, x -values) gives

the intercept of a regression line

=CORREL( y -values, x -values) gives the

correlation between the x-values and yvalues

There are three different common conventions for computing quartiles. If you compute them by handm you typically
get different results than with Excel. All are roughly the same in that they cut the data set into groups that are roughly
25% of individuals.

=NORM.S.INV(0.8) gives you the z-score with

=NORM.DIST(14,12,3,1) gives you the P-

80% area to its left in a standard Normal

distribution
0.80

value to the left of 14 in a (non-standard)

Normal distribution with = 12 and
= 3; the 1 is important, and in MTH
243/244 that is the only option you will
ever need.
3

P?
z?

=NORM.S.DIST(1.2,1) gives you the P-value

to the left of 1.2 in a standard Normal distribution; the 1 is important, and in MTH
243/244 that is the only option you will
ever need.
P?

14
12

1.2

=NORM.INV(0.75,12,3) gives you the xvalue with 75% area to its left in a (nonstandard) Normal distribution with = 12
and = 3
0.75
3

x?
12

=BINOM.DIST(successes, trials, p, 1) gives the probability that you would have up to

successes successes in the binomial setting
=BINOM.DIST(successes, trials, p, 0) gives the probability that you would have exactly
successes successes in the binomial setting