QUARTILE Function in Apple Numbers: Syntax, Examples and Troubleshooting

• Introduced: Documented in Apple’s Formulas and Functions Help 15.4; the original introduction release is not established.
• Availability: Currently documented for Numbers in that help version; it is not a final supported-version endpoint.
• Scope: Shared iWork function help; individual client and older-release availability is not established by this check.
• Checked: October 14, 2026, against the official QUARTILE reference. Documentation and independent arithmetic checks; no native Numbers test.

A quartile partitions an ordered numerical distribution into four broad quarters. Instead of quoting only an average, a seller tracking order values, a teacher reviewing marks or an operations analyst studying delivery times can use Q1, median and Q3 to understand the center and spread of a measured sample. The middle 50% of results lies between the first and third quartiles under the chosen quartile convention. Apple’s QUARTILE page explicitly maps modes 0–4 to minimum, Q1, median, Q3 and maximum.

The function returns a number from the input distribution’s scale, not a percentage rank. For the reverse question—what fraction describes a specified value’s standing?—see Apple’s PERCENTRANK help.

=QUARTILE(num-set, quartile-num)

There is no documented optional argument or omitted-value default. Apple’s user-facing term modal value means a mode selector, not the statistical MODE function. Modes 0 and 4 return the lowest and highest values, respectively, while mode 2 returns the median. Use one of the five documented selectors; invalid or fractional modes are covered under troubleshooting.

Apple states that modes 0, 2, and 4 return the same results as MIN, MEDIAN, and MAX for the same qualifying data. These are useful consistency checks for the numeric sample.

1. Create a Numbers table named Scores with at least columns A:J and ten rows. In B2:J2, enter the numbers exactly as Apple specifies. Preserve numeric cell types, not strings.
2. Below or beside the inputs, place the five formulas shown in the next table into empty result cells. When entering a formula inside Scores, the range is simply B2:J2. If the formula lives in a different table and needs qualification, use Scores::B2:J2. Apple documents these Numbers-specific references.
3. Compare each returned value against the documented outputs. If any result differs, first verify that the table contains all nine exact numeric observations and that quartile-num is in the second argument position.

For an independent check, sort the nine numbers to get 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 11, 14. On this nine-point example, Q1 is the third ordered value (5), the middle is the fifth (7), and Q3 is the seventh (9); the endpoints are 2 and 14. Do not generalize that hand-counting shortcut to every even-sized sample: different quartile definitions can produce different answers, and this source does not settle all algorithms and edge cases.

The IQR measures the span from Q1 to Q3, an exploratory spread measure less directly affected by a single extreme than the total range. In an empty cell in Scores enter:

=QUARTILE(B2:J2,3)-QUARTILE(B2:J2,1)

Expected result: 9 - 5 = 4. Apple documents each quartile value; the subtraction is independent arithmetic. This formula assumes data are valid numeric observations. The IQR is measured in the same units as your observations, not as a percentage.

Exploratory outlier fences: worked from the example

Some analysts use Tukey-style exploratory fences defined by Q1 − 1.5 × IQR and Q3 + 1.5 × IQR. This is a statistical technique derived independently, not a special promise by Apple about QUARTILE. For this exact data:

Lower: =QUARTILE(B2:J2,1)-1.5*(QUARTILE(B2:J2,3)-QUARTILE(B2:J2,1))
Upper: =QUARTILE(B2:J2,3)+1.5*(QUARTILE(B2:J2,3)-QUARTILE(B2:J2,1))

The words Lower: and Upper: are labels, not part of formulas; enter the part beginning with =. Expected lower fence: 5 − 1.5×4 = −1. Expected upper fence: 9 + 1.5×4 = 15. Every sample observation (2 to 14) falls inside those illustrative fences. These fences flag values for investigation, not automatic deletion, and are not confidence intervals. For uneven distributions, small samples and alternative quartile conventions, decisions require methodological judgment.

Compare with MIN, MEDIAN, MAX and PERCENTRANK

=MIN(B2:J2), =MEDIAN(B2:J2) and =MAX(B2:J2) are useful cross-checks for QUARTILE(…,0), QUARTILE(…,2) and QUARTILE(…,4) respectively, as Apple explicitly notes. By contrast, =PERCENTRANK(B2:J2,9) independently gives about 0.750 as a rank fraction, whereas =QUARTILE(B2:J2,3) gives 9, a data value. Don’t interchange the two functions or divide a quartile result by 100.

Apple’s English-language function signatures separate arguments with commas, for example =QUARTILE(B2:J2,1). If spreadsheet region settings use a comma as the decimal separator, Apple instructs users to separate function arguments using semicolons: =QUARTILE(B2:J2;1). This is about delimiters; it does not change the meanings of the selected quartiles.

For formulas in another Numbers table, qualify the range with Scores::B2:J2 when necessary; a range is written with one colon between endpoint cell references, whereas a table qualifier uses two colons. In a different sheet use Apple’s documented Sheet Name::Table Name::Range pattern. Avoid Excel’s Sheet1!B2:J2 sheet-reference format. When copying formulas, Apple’s $ absolute references can fix selected rows or columns if the example requires it.

• Apple QUARTILE — authority for the syntax, five modes and published outputs.
• Apple PERCENTRANK — complementary relative-ranking function, not a quartile value.
• Apple functions overview — locale separators and required/optional syntax conventions.
• Apple cell references — range, table and sheet addressing; $ anchors.

• PERCENTILE: find the value at a percentile
• MEDIAN: find the middle value
• MIN: find the smallest observation
• MAX: find the largest observation