A to Z of Excel Functions: The ERF.PRECISE Function

Welcome back to our regular A to Z of Excel Functions blog. Today we look at the ERF.PRECISE function.

The ERF.PRECISE function

In mathematics, the error function (also called the Gauss error function or ERF) is a special, non-elementary function that occurs in probability, statistics and partial differential equations describing diffusion. It is defined as:

In statistics, for nonnegative values of x, the error function has the following interpretation: for a random variable Y that is normally distributed with mean 0 and variance 1/2, ERF(x) describes the probability of Y falling in the range [?x, x].

This function is similar to the ERF function and was introduced into Excel 2010 for compatibility reasons.  The ERF.PRECISE function returns the error function similarly.

The ERF.PRECISE function employs the following syntax to operate:

The ERF.PRECISE function has the following arguments:

• x: Required. The lower bound for integrating ERF.PRECISE.

It should be further noted that:

• If x is nonnumeric, ERF.PRECISE returns the #VALUE! error value.

Please see my example below:

We’ll continue our A to Z of Excel Functions soon. Keep checking back – there’s a new blog post every business day.

A full page of the function articles can be found here.