F test function

Returns the result of an F-test, the two-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 test score diversity.

Syntax

F.TEST(array1,array2)

The F.TEST function syntax has the following arguments:

• Array1     Required. The first array or range of data.

• Array2     Required. 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, F.TEST returns the #DIV/0! error value.

Example

Copy the example data in the following table, and paste it in cell A1 of a new Excel worksheet. For formulas to show results, select them, press F2, and then press Enter. If you need to, you can adjust the column widths to see all the data.

Data1	Data2
6	20
7	28
9	31
15	38
21	40
Formula	Description	Result
=F.TEST(A2:A6,B2:B6)	F-test for the data sets in A2:A6 and B2:B6.	0.64831785