PERCENTRANK Function (OpenOffice Calc)

• Introduced: First release not established. The OpenOffice.org 3.3 function appendix documents this name; that establishes historical presence, not its introduction.
• Supported in: Apache OpenOffice 4.1.16; no final supported release established.
• Scope: Desktop Calc. Examples use English function names and semicolon argument separators; the numeric contract is release-specific.
• Checked: October 14, 2026. Retained official sources and independent mathematics checked. No new Apache OpenOffice Calc execution is claimed here.

=PERCENTRANK(Data; Value)

Exactly two arguments are accepted in Apache OpenOffice 4.1.16. The source contains disabled precision-argument code, but that is not an available third argument. Do not copy LibreOffice’s optional Significance parameter into this formula. 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.

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

The references below are independently computed. The printed decimals are rounded for readability; the function has no Significance rounding step in this release.

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.

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.

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.

If a report requires rounded output, apply ROUND separately and label that reporting choice. For example, =ROUND(PERCENTRANK(A2:A8;20);3) gives 0.167. Cell percentage formatting changes appearance without changing the underlying rank.

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 an extra argument is not a meaningful zero-percent result. Keep those failures visible instead of concealing them with IFERROR(…;0).

• Function-specific Apache OpenOffice 4.1.16 implementation

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.