FTEST

Microsoft Office Spreadsheet Functions

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FTEST

See Also

Returns the result of an F-test. An F-test returns the one-tailed probability that the variances in array1 and array2 are not significantly different. Use this function to determine whether two samples have different variances. For example, given test scores from public and private schools, you can test whether these schools have different levels of diversity.

Syntax

FTEST(array1,array2)

Array1   is the first array or range of data.

Array2   is the second array or range of data.

Remarks

  • The arguments must be either numbers or names, arrays, or references that contain numbers.
  • If an array or reference argument contains text, logical values, or empty cells, those values are ignored; however, cells with the value zero are included.
  • If the number of data points in array1 or array2 is less than 2, or if the variance of array1 or array2 is zero, FTEST returns the #DIV/0! error value.

Example

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

How?

Data1 Data2
6 20
7 28
9 31
15 38
21 40
Formula Description (Result)
=FTEST(A2:A6,B2:B6) F-test for the data sets above (0.648318)