Normdist() Function in Excel

The NORMDIST Function is one of Excel’s Statistical functions. For a given mean and standard deviation, it will yield the normal distribution. That is, for a given set of parameters, it will compute the normal probability density function or the cumulative normal distribution function. In this article, we will discuss NORMDIST Function with a few examples.

Characteristics of the NORMDIST Function

• The NORMDIST Function only accepts numeric values.
• If the specified standard deviation is less than or equal to zero, the NORMDIST Function returns “#NUM! error.”
• If any of the provided inputs is not a numeric value, the NORMDIST Function returns “#VALUE! error.”

Formula

=NORMDIST(x,mean,standard_dev,cumulative)

The following parameters are sent to the NORMDIST function:

1. X (mandatory parameter): The value for which the distribution should be calculated.
2. Mean (mandatory parameter): The distribution’s arithmetic mean.
3. Standard dev (mandatory parameter): This is the distribution’s standard deviation.
4. Cumulative (mandatory parameter): This is a logical value. It indicates whether the distribution will be TRUE (Cumulative Normal Distribution Function) or FALSE (Normal Probability Density Function).

Example 1

Let’s look at an example to see how the NORMDIST function may be used:

Assume we are given the following information:

• The value for which we require distribution = 152 (B2 cell)
• The distribution’s arithmetic mean = 150 (B3 cell)
• The distribution’s standard deviation = 20 (B4 cell)

If we want to determine the cumulative distribution function for the provided data, we may use the following formula:

=NORMDIST(B2,B3,B4,TRUE)

In this example, we are calculating the cumulative distribution using the NORMDIST function taking a few arguments such as:

1. The first parameter taking the value for which we require distribution and taking the B2 Cell value as the first parameter. 
2. The second parameter takes the value for which we require the arithmetic mean and takes the B3 Cell value as the second parameter.
3. The third parameter takes the value for which we require the standard deviation and takes the B4 Cell value as the third parameter. 
4. In the fourth parameter, we are taking the value as TRUE for calculating the cumulative distribution.

Press Enter to get the output which is shown in the following: 

Example 2

If we want to determine the probability mass function for the provided data, we may use the following formula:

=NORMDIST(B2,B3,B4,FALSE)

Assume we are given with the following information:

• The value for which we require distribution = 152 (B2 cell)
• The distribution’s arithmetic mean = 150 (B3 cell)
• The distribution’s standard deviation = 20 (B4 cell)

In this example, we are calculating the Probability mass using the NORMDIST function taking a few arguments such as:

1. The first parameter taking the value for which we require distribution and taking the B2 Cell value as the first parameter.
2. The second parameter takes the value for which we require the arithmetic mean and takes the B3 Cell value as the second parameter. 
3. The third parameter takes the value for which we require the standard deviation and takes the B4 Cell value as the third parameter. 
4. In the fourth parameter, we are taking the value as FALSE for calculating the probability mass.

Press Enter to get the output which is shown in the following: