Compatibility functions (reference)

Applies To
Excel for Microsoft 365 Excel for Microsoft 365 for Mac Excel 2024 Excel 2024 for Mac Excel 2021 Excel 2021 for Mac Excel 2019 Excel 2016

In Excel 2010 or later, these functions were replaced with new functions that provide improved accuracy and have names that better reflect their usage. You can still use them for compatibility with earlier versions of Excel, but if backward compatibility isn't required, you should start using the new functions instead. For more information about the new functions, see Statistical functions (reference) and Math and trigonometry functions (reference) .

To get detailed information about a function, click its name in the first column.

Function Description
BETADIST function Returns the beta cumulative distribution function
BETAINV function Returns the inverse of the cumulative distribution function for a specified beta distribution
BINOMDIST function Returns the individual term binomial distribution probability
CHIDIST function Returns the one-tailed probability of the chi-squared distribution
CHIINV function Returns the inverse of the one-tailed probability of the chi-squared distribution
CHITEST function Returns the test for independence
CONCATENATE function Joins two or more text strings into one string.
CONFIDENCE function Returns the confidence interval for a population mean
COVAR function Returns covariance, the average of the products of paired deviations
CRITBINOM function Returns the smallest value for which the cumulative binomial distribution is less than or equal to a criterion value
EXPONDIST function Returns the exponential distribution
FDIST function Returns the F probability distribution
FINV function Returns the inverse of the F probability distribution
FORECAST function Returns a value along a linear trend
Note: In Excel 2016, this function is replaced with the new Forecasting functions, but it's still available for compatibility with earlier versions.
FLOOR function Rounds a number down, toward zero
FTEST function Returns the result of an F-test
GAMMADIST function Returns the gamma distribution
GAMMAINV function Returns the inverse of the gamma cumulative distribution
HYPGEOMDIST function Returns the hypergeometric distribution
LOGINV function Returns the inverse of the lognormal cumulative distribution function
LOGNORMDIST function Returns the cumulative lognormal distribution
MODE function Returns the most common value in a data set
NEGBINOMDIST function Returns the negative binomial distribution
NORMDIST function Returns the normal cumulative distribution
NORMINV function Returns the inverse of the normal cumulative distribution
NORMSDIST function Returns the standard normal cumulative distribution
NORMSINV function Returns the inverse of the standard normal cumulative distribution
PERCENTILE function Returns the k-th percentile of values in a range
PERCENTRANK function Returns the percentage rank of a value in a data set
POISSON function Returns the Poisson distribution
QUARTILE function Returns the quartile of a data set
RANK function Returns the rank of a number in a list of numbers
STDEV function Estimates standard deviation based on a sample
STDEVP function Calculates standard deviation based on the entire population
TDIST function Returns the Student's t-distribution
TINV function Returns the inverse of the Student's t-distribution
TTEST function Returns the probability associated with a Student's t-test
VAR function Estimates variance based on a sample
VARP function Calculates variance based on the entire population
WEIBULL function Returns the Weibull distribution
ZTEST function Returns the one-tailed probability-value of a z-test

Important

The calculated results of formulas and some Excel worksheet functions may differ slightly between a Windows PC using x86 or x86-64 architecture and a Windows RT PC using ARM architecture. Learn more about the differences.