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PERCENTRANK.INC Function (LibreOffice Calc)

Statistical Intermediate LibreOffice Calc LibreOffice 4.3

LibreOffice Calc PERCENTRANK.INC ranks and interpolates values in a sample, including ties, endpoints and optional significant-digit rounding.

Verification status: Official release source and independently calculated examples for PERCENTRANK.INC were reviewed. No new LibreOffice Calc application execution is claimed for this guide; the stated version and example limits still apply. How formula examples are checked

Quick answer: For the values 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70 in A2:A8, =PERCENTRANK.INC(A2:A8;20) returns approximately 0.167. Format the numeric result as a percentage to display its relative position.

Availability and version history

  • Introduced: LibreOffice 4.3.
  • Availability: Supported in LibreOffice 26.8.1.1, verified against its function registry. This identifies a supported release, not a final working version.
  • Scope: Desktop Calc, using the English function name. Availability in other spreadsheet applications is separate.
  • Checked: 2026-10-14 — function reference; versioned support. Documentation/source check; not a new native test. Existing example-specific test claims below retain their stated scope.

Syntax and product-specific precision

=PERCENTRANK.INC(Data; Value [; Significance])

Data and Value are required. Significance is optional, defaults to 3, is floored, and must be at least 1. It controls significant digits, not decimal places. For example, 1/6 becomes 0.167 at the default precision; Significance=5 gives 0.16667. Pinned evaluator.

The function sorts the usable sample values internally and locates Value between the smallest and largest observations. Values outside that span are rejected rather than extrapolated. The sample can be unsorted, but a consistently documented reference population is still essential for interpreting the result.

Reproducible worksheet

Enter A as a distinct seven-value sample and B as a seven-value sample with three tied 20s.

Row A B
2 10 10
3 20 20
4 30 20
5 40 20
6 50 40
7 60 50
8 70 60

The references below are independently computed. The rounding shown is part of the function’s default three-significant-digit contract.

Formula Expected result, approximately
=PERCENTRANK.INC(A2:A8;20) 0.167
=PERCENTRANK.INC(A2:A8;25) 0.25
=PERCENTRANK.INC(A2:A8;10) 0
=PERCENTRANK.INC(A2:A8;70) 1
=PERCENTRANK.INC(A2:A8;40) 0.5
=PERCENTRANK.INC(B2:B8;20) 0.167
=PERCENTRANK.INC(B2:B8;30) 0.583
=PERCENTRANK.INC(B2:B8;60) 1

For the distinct sample, an exact match at zero-based sorted position i has rank i/(n−1). Thus 10 maps to 0, 40 to 0.5 and 70 to 1. The value 25 falls halfway between 20 and 30, yielding rank 1.5/6=0.25.

Ties are not averaged ranks

For B, the exact value 20 uses the first tied position, yielding 1/6 before any rounding. It does not average all three positions and is not simply the fraction of observations at or below 20. A value of 30 interpolates between the final 20 and 40, giving 3.5/6 before rounding. Rank/interpolation logic.

This distinction also affects repeated maxima. In a separate sample containing only 10, 20, 20, the exact value 20 has rank 0.5, rather than 1. A sample consisting of a single matching observation returns 1. These are implementation conventions; do not infer that every maximum always gets 100% regardless of ties or sample size.

Practical interpretation and display

Use percentage formatting for a readable percentile position: 0.25 becomes 25%. Do not multiply by 100 and also apply percentage formatting, which would display 2500%. Preserve a numeric result so it can be sorted or used in comparisons.

For a threshold analysis, explicitly select sufficient Significance, since a rounded result can cross a cutoff. For example, =PERCENTRANK.INC(A2:A8;20;1) gives 0.2, while the five-digit result is 0.16667. Cell number formatting only changes display; Significance changes the returned value.

A percentile rank locates an observed value within this chosen sample. It is not a probability model for a future observation, and it should not be compared across groups with different reference populations without explaining that difference. A percentile function answers the inverse kind of question: which value lies at a specified percentile. Ties and rounding mean a rank-to-percentile round trip need not recover the original value exactly.

Use numeric observations and inspect missing or text entries before ranking. An empty numeric sample, an out-of-range Value or invalid Significance is not a meaningful zero-percent result. Keep those failures visible instead of concealing them with IFERROR(…;0).

Official evidence and calculation scope

The numerical references were recomputed independently against the retained release contract. Native application execution, import paths and locale behavior are not newly verified by these reference calculations. The 26.8.1.1 dispatcher routes PERCENTRANK.INC and the legacy PERCENTRANK spelling to the same evaluator. The introduction history above applies to the dotted name.