QUARTILE.EXC
Returns the quartile of a dataset based on percentile values strictly between 0 and 1 (exclusive). Differs from QUARTILE.INC for small datasets.
QUARTILE.EXC(array, quart)Arguments
arrayThe array or range of numeric data.quart1 = Q1, 2 = median, 3 = Q3 (must be 1, 2, or 3).
=QUARTILE.EXC({1,2,3,4,5}, 1)First quartile, exclusive method
=QUARTILE.EXC({1,2,3,4,5}, 3)Third quartile, exclusive method
- •Available since Excel 2010
- •Returns #NUM! if quart is not 1, 2, or 3, or if array has fewer than 4 values
- •Use QUARTILE.INC for the inclusive variant (matches legacy QUARTILE)
- •Passing a quart value of 0 or 4, which raises a #NUM! error since QUARTILE.EXC only supports 1, 2, or 3 - unlike QUARTILE.INC, it doesn't treat the minimum and maximum as quartile positions
- •Applying QUARTILE.EXC to a dataset with fewer than 4 values, which returns a #NUM! error since the exclusive method needs enough data points to calculate a meaningful result
- •Assuming QUARTILE.EXC and QUARTILE.INC always give similar results - they can diverge meaningfully, especially for small datasets
QUARTILE.INCIncludes the dataset's minimum and maximum as valid quartile positions (0 and 4), a more permissive alternative to QUARTILE.EXC.PERCENTILE.EXCQUARTILE.EXC is essentially a convenient shortcut for PERCENTILE.EXC at the specific values 0.25, 0.5, and 0.75.MEDIANEquivalent to QUARTILE.EXC with quart set to 2, a more direct way to get specifically the middle value.Why does QUARTILE.EXC return a #NUM! error for quart values of 0 or 4?
QUARTILE.EXC only supports quart values 1, 2, or 3 (first quartile, median, third quartile) - unlike QUARTILE.INC, it doesn't treat the dataset's minimum and maximum as quartile positions.
Why does QUARTILE.EXC return a #NUM! error on a small dataset?
The exclusive method requires at least 4 data points to calculate any quartile meaningfully - smaller datasets don't have enough values for the calculation to resolve.
When should I use QUARTILE.EXC instead of QUARTILE.INC?
Use QUARTILE.EXC when following a statistical convention that specifically excludes the dataset's endpoints from quartile calculations - otherwise QUARTILE.INC, which matches the legacy QUARTILE function, is the more common default.
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