PERMUT in Collabora Office: Count Ordered Selections Without Replacement

=PERMUT(Count1; Count2)

Count1 is the number of available objects. Count2 is the number of positions to fill. Both arguments are required. For the worked examples, use whole-number counts with Count1 nonnegative and Count2 between zero and Count1. The dedicated Collabora help describes the arguments and gives the six-object, three-position example.

Objects must be distinguishable. If two objects share the same displayed label but are physically separate choices, decide whether the question counts their identities or merely the labels. PERMUT does not inspect a range to deduplicate labels; it receives the counts you supply.

The mathematical model is n!/(n−k)!, equivalently n × (n−1) × … × (n−k+1). Each position has one fewer remaining choice. This is the independent model used for the outputs below.

Put 6 in A2 for available people and 3 in B2 for distinct roles. In C2 enter =PERMUT(A2;B2). The expected result is 120: six choices for the first role, five for the second, and four for the third.

Assigning Ana, Bo and Cy to chair, secretary and reviewer is different from assigning the same people to reviewer, chair and secretary. If the question only asks which three people form a committee, order does not matter and COMBIN is the appropriate counting model. =COMBIN(6;3) gives 20. The ratio 120/20 is 6, the number of arrangements of the chosen three people.

Keep this distinction explicit in the worksheet’s output label, for example “Ordered role assignments.” A formula can calculate its chosen model correctly while answering the wrong organizational question.

Enter n=6 in A5:A9 and k values 0, 1, 2, 3, 6 in B5:B9. Enter =PERMUT(A5;B5) in C5 and fill down. Independent expected outputs are 1, 6, 30, 120, 720.

The zero-position result uses the mathematical empty-arrangement convention: there is one way to choose no positions. It is an independently calculated boundary control, not a captured Collabora boundary test. The full six-position calculation is 6!, or 720.

Check the table with multiplication for the small cases. For k=2, 6×5 is 30; for k=3, 6×5×4 is 120. This avoids relying on a second formula with an unnoticed identical input error.

Suppose a specific person must occupy the first of three roles and five other people may fill the remaining two. The first role has one permitted choice; the remaining assignment count is =PERMUT(5;2), expected 20.

If instead one particular person must be included somewhere among three distinct roles, choose their position in three ways and then fill the other two from five people. =3*PERMUT(5;2) gives 60. These are different constraints. Multiplying by three in the reserved-first-role scenario would count arrangements that violate that restriction.

PERMUT does not encode permissions, incompatibilities or eligibility rules. Reduce the problem to valid independent choices before using the function. If people have different allowed roles, enumerate or model the assignments explicitly rather than plugging a single headcount into this formula.

• If k exceeds n, selection without replacement is impossible. Validate the input instead of relying on an undocumented error display.
• Reject fractional and negative counts for these examples. The reviewed function section does not specify fractional coercion or its error codes.
• Large counts can exceed floating-point range or exact integer precision. A displayed integer is not proof that every digit is exact; use a dedicated arbitrary-precision counting tool when exact large counts matter.
• If the result seems too large, check whether order truly matters and whether repetition was intended. PERMUTATIONA models choices with repetition.
• Use the argument separator configured in your installation. The formulas here use English names and semicolons.

The worksheet performs combinatorial arithmetic. It does not assess which particular people should receive a role.

The function is documented in Collabora Office 26.04 desktop help. The cited source was retrieved on 2026-10-13; its saved bytes were hash-verified for this guide on October 15, 2026. Online and mobile support are not inferred.

The first introduced release and last functioning version are unknown. A documentation version is evidence of documented availability, not a native execution test. No Collabora or WPS application run was performed. Numerical outputs here are independently calculated expectations, with the official examples identified where used.

• Collabora Office 26.04: PERMUT.
• Editorial testing standards.

English function names and semicolon separators are used throughout. Exact native results, invalid-input error displays and other application versions remain unverified unless explicitly documented above.