The COMBIN Function in EXCEL

The COMBIN Function in EXCEL  

 

What is the COMBIN Function in Excel?

Excel has many mathematical functions, and COMBIN is one of them.

 1)  When do we use it?

COMBIN can be used to calculate combinations (possible arrangements) of items.
For example: Suppose you need to choose three balls out of four. How many combinations are there?

Solution: there are 4 combinations, or 4 possibilities of selecting 3 balls out of four:
1-2-3, 2-3-4, 1-2-4, 1-3-4

In mathematical notation:

                    

And applied to our example:

    

                  

 2) How to use it?

The function COMBIN(n, k) gets two mandatory arguments:

k - The number selected (3 in our example)

n - The number from which to select (4 in our example)

in the above example:

Restrictions:

·        * Both must positive numbers.

·        * Each number is truncated to an integer if it is a decimal number.

·        * The number from which to select (n) must be greater than the number selected (k)

 3)    An example of non-practical use: 😓😓😓

You’ve just bought a lottery ticket, where you guessed 6 numbers out of 48. You want to know the number of possible combinations (to statistically estimate your chances of winning the prize).

Applying the formula in Excel:

=COMBIN(48,6) will yields: 12,271,512

So, practically speaking, this means that your chances of winning are extremely negligible.

Conclusion: Stay away from lottery tickets !!!