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PERCENTRANK

The PERCENTRANK formula in Google Sheets returns the percentage rank of a specified value within a dataset. It calculates the percentage of values in a given range that are less than or equal to the specified value. This formula is commonly used in statistical analysis to determine the relative standing of a particular value within a dataset.

Usage

Use the PERCENTRANK formula with the syntax shown below, it has 2 required parameters and 1 optional parameter:

=PERCENTRANK(data, value, [significant_digits])
Parameters:
  1. data (required):
    The range of cells containing the dataset for which you want to calculate the percentage rank.
  2. value (required):
    The value for which you want to calculate the percentage rank in the dataset.
  3. significant_digits (optional):
    The number of significant digits to display in the result. If omitted, the default value is 3.

Examples

Here are a few example use cases that explain how to use the PERCENTRANK formula in Google Sheets.

Calculating the percentage rank of a value in a dataset

You can use the PERCENTRANK formula to determine the percentage rank of a specific value in a dataset. This can be useful in statistical analysis to determine how the value compares to other values in the dataset.

Identifying outliers in a dataset

By using the PERCENTRANK formula, you can identify outliers in a dataset. If a value has a percentage rank that is much higher or lower than the other values in the dataset, it may be an outlier.

Benchmarking performance

You can use the PERCENTRANK formula to benchmark the performance of a specific value against other values in the dataset. This can be useful in business analysis to determine how a particular metric compares to industry standards or competitors.

Common Mistakes

PERCENTRANK not working? Here are some common mistakes people make when using the PERCENTRANK Google Sheets Formula:

Not specifying the data range

One common mistake is not specifying the range of cells containing the dataset to be analyzed, resulting in an error or inaccurate results.

Forgetting to include the value parameter

If the value parameter is omitted, the function will return an error, so it's important to include this parameter in the formula.

Using a range that includes non-numeric values

If the dataset range includes non-numeric values, the function will return an error, so make sure to use a range that only contains numeric values.

The following functions are similar to PERCENTRANK or are often used with it in a formula:

  • PERCENTILE

    The PERCENTILE function returns the value at a given percentile of a dataset. This can be useful in statistics and data analysis when trying to find the value that corresponds to a certain percentile in a set of data.

  • AVERAGE

    The AVERAGE function calculates the average (arithmetic mean) of the values passed to it. It is commonly used to find the average of a range of cells containing numerical data.

  • STDEV

    The STDEV function calculates the standard deviation of a set of numbers. It measures the amount of variation or dispersion of a set of values from the average (mean) value. It is commonly used in statistics to determine the spread of a data set. The values can be supplied as individual cells, ranges, or constants.

  • MEDIAN

    The MEDIAN function returns the median (middle) value of a set of numbers. It is commonly used to find the middle value in a range of data points. If the number of data points is even, it returns the average of the two middle values. This function can be useful in statistical analysis and data visualization.

Learn More

You can learn more about the PERCENTRANK Google Sheets function on Google Support.