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In this article
PERCENTILE.EXC returns the k-th percentile but treats 0 and 1 as out of range. On small samples its results sit slightly wider than PERCENTILE.INC, which is why two analysts can report different “90th percentile” numbers from the same data.
Syntax
=PERCENTILE.EXC(array, k)| Argument | What it means |
|---|---|
array |
Numbers. |
k |
Between 0 and 1, exclusive. |
Examples
Example 1
=PERCENTILE.EXC(C2:C200, 0.9)90th-percentile delivery time.
Common errors and fixes
| You see | Why, and the fix |
|---|---|
#NUM! |
k is too close to 0 or 1 for the number of values (e.g. k=0.99 on 20 values). |
PERCENTILE.EXC in practice
Where you will use it
- Percentile cut-offs excluding the extremes
- Statistical reporting
- Salary benchmarks
Worked example
| k | Formula | Result |
|---|---|---|
| 0.25 | =ROUND(PERCENTILE.EXC({120,135,128,160,95,140,132},A2),2) | 120 |
| 0.5 | =ROUND(PERCENTILE.EXC({120,135,128,160,95,140,132},A3),2) | 132 |
| 0.9 | =ROUND(PERCENTILE.EXC({120,135,128,160,95,140,132},A4),2) | #NUM! |
Results calculated in Excel. With only 7 values, k = 0.9 is outside what EXC allows, so Excel returns #NUM!; PERCENTILE.INC handles it.
Mistakes people make
| Mistake | What to do instead |
|---|---|
| k too close to 0 or 1 | #NUM! for small samples |
| INC vs EXC | INC is the usual Excel percentile |
Related functions
PERCENTILE.INC · QUARTILE.INC · PERCENTRANK.INC
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📎 Practice files for this article
- 📗Practice workbook: Statistics advanced33 tasks on realistic sales data — type your formula, the Check column turns green when it is right. Answers sheet included.⬇ XLSX · 36 KB
Free to use for learning. Files with macros (.bas) are plain text — import them with Alt+F11 → File → Import File, and always test on a copy.
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