BETADIST

Microsoft Office Excel 2003

See Also

Returns the beta cumulative distribution function. The beta distribution is commonly used to study variation in the percentage of something across samples, such as the fraction of the day people spend watching television.

Syntax

BETADIST(x,alpha,beta,A,B)

X    is the value between A and B at which to evaluate the function.

Alpha    is a parameter of the distribution.

Beta    is a parameter of the distribution.

A    is an optional lower bound to the interval of x.

B    is an optional upper bound to the interval of x.

Remarks

  • If any argument is nonnumeric, BETADIST returns the #VALUE! error value.
  • If alpha ≤ 0 or beta ≤ 0, BETADIST returns the #NUM! error value.
  • If x < A, x > B, or A = B, BETADIST returns the #NUM! error value.
  • If you omit values for A and B, BETADIST uses the standard cumulative beta distribution, so that A = 0 and B = 1.

Example

The example may be easier to understand if you copy it to a blank worksheet.

ShowHow?

  1. Create a blank workbook or worksheet.
  2. Select the example in the Help topic. Do not select the row or column headers.

    Selecting an example from Help

    Selecting an example from Help

  3. Press CTRL+C.
  4. In the worksheet, select cell A1, and press CTRL+V.
  5. To switch between viewing the results and viewing the formulas that return the results, press CTRL+` (grave accent), or on the Tools menu, point to Formula Auditing, and then click Formula Auditing Mode.
 
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A B
Data Description
2 Value at which to evaluate the function
8 Parameter of the distribution
10 Parameter of the distribution
1 Lower bound
3 Upper bound
Formula Description (Result)
=BETADIST(A2,A3,A4,A5,A6) Cumulative beta probability density function, for the above parameters (0.685470581)