F.INV.RT
Quirk foundCategory: Statistical · Last tested 2026-09-01
Real compatibility results for the F.INV.RT function: executed in Excel for the web, Google Sheets and LibreOffice Calc, with desktop Excel behavior from Microsoft’s official documentation (we do not run desktop Excel — Excel for the web is a different application and is executed separately). Syntax and links to that documentation are below.
Support matrix
| Engine | Documented | Live-tested | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|
| Excel (desktop) | Yes | No — documented only | n/a |
| Excel for the web | — | Yes (recalc, 2026-09-01) | Supported, behaves as documented |
| Google Sheets | Yes | Yes (Drive import, 2026-08-31) | Supported, behaves as documented |
| LibreOffice Calc | Yes | Yes (25.8.7.3, 2026-08-31) | Quirk found |
LibreOffice version history
We executed the same test cases under each LibreOffice release to show exactly when F.INV.RT’s support changed — not documentation claims, real results.
| LibreOffice version | Verdict | Tested |
|---|---|---|
| 24.2.0.3 | Quirk found | 2026-08-31 |
| 24.8.7.2 | Quirk found | 2026-08-31 |
| 25.2.0.3 | Quirk found | 2026-08-31 |
| 25.8.7.3 | Quirk found | 2026-08-31 |
Why isn't F.INV.RT working in LibreOffice?
F.INV.RT exists in LibreOffice 25.8.7.3, but it is not a drop-in match for
Excel — our executed tests found real behavioral differences (detailed in the test results on this
page). If a formula that works in Excel or Google Sheets misbehaves in LibreOffice, compare your usage
against the failing cases above before assuming your data is wrong.
Discovered quirks
-
=F.INV.RT(-0.5,6,4) on
LibreOffice Calc returned
#VALUE!, but the documented/expected
result is #NUM!.
Provenance
Excel documents: "If Probability is < 0 or probability is > 1, F.INV.RT returns the #NUM! error value." EXECUTED RESULT: all four LibreOffice builds (24.2.0.3, 24.8.7.2, 25.2.0.3, 25.8.7.3) return #VALUE! here instead of the documented #NUM! -- the same systemic #VALUE!-substitution pattern already recorded across this corpus, an error-code difference rather than a computation one.; MISMATCH vs expected: expected '#NUM!', got '#VALUE!'
-
=F.INV.RT(0.01,6,0) on
LibreOffice Calc returned
#VALUE!, but the documented/expected
result is #NUM!.
Provenance
Excel documents: "If Deg_freedom1 is < 1, or Deg_freedom2 is < 1, F.INV.RT returns the #NUM! error value." EXECUTED RESULT: all four LibreOffice builds (24.2.0.3, 24.8.7.2, 25.2.0.3, 25.8.7.3) return #VALUE! here instead of the documented #NUM! -- the same systemic #VALUE!-substitution pattern already recorded across this corpus, an error-code difference rather than a computation one.; MISMATCH vs expected: expected '#NUM!', got '#VALUE!'
Executed test cases
Excel for the web (executed 2026-09-01 via OneDrive recalculation)
These values come from Excel for the web, not from desktop Excel. They are two different implementations of the calculation engine, and this run measured only the web one: the corpus was uploaded to OneDrive as .xlsx, recalculated by Excel for the web on open, and downloaded again for readback. Excel for the web is a rolling service with no pinnable version, so the run is identified by its date. Where a value here disagrees with the Expected column — which is Microsoft’s documentation of the desktop product — we cannot tell you whether the web engine diverges from the desktop one or the documentation is wrong about both, because we do not run desktop Excel.
| Formula | Description | Result | Expected | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| =ROUND(F.INV.RT(0.01,6,4),5) | Microsoft's documented worked example: the upper 1% critical value of the F distribution with 6 and 4 degrees of freedom | 15.20686 | 15.20686ProvenanceMicrosoft's page publishes '=F.INV.RT(A2,A3,A4)' over the data 0.01 / 6 / 4 with the result 15.20686. Re-derived independently by solving 1 - P(F <= x) = 0.01 with mpmath at 50 digits: x = 15.206864861157530011, i.e. exactly the published 15.20686 at 5 dp. This is also the x the F.DIST.RT and FDIST pages feed back in as their example argument (15.2068649 and 15.20686486), which is a useful independent confirmation that the three pages describe one consistent distribution. |
Matched |
| =ROUND(F.DIST.RT(F.INV.RT(0.01,6,4),6,4),8) | The documented inverse identity, exercised as a round trip | 0.01 | 0.01ProvenanceMicrosoft documents the pair with the identity "If p = F.DIST.RT(x,...), then F.INV.RT(p,...) = x", and adds that "precision of F.INV.RT depends on precision of F.DIST.RT" because "F.INV.RT uses an iterative search technique". Feeding the inverse straight back into the forward function must therefore return the probability it started from, 0.01, to within the search tolerance. Asserted at 8 dp, which is far looser than the documented 64-iteration search would need to be to fail. |
Matched |
| =F.INV.RT(-0.5,6,4) | A probability outside [0,1] | #NUM! | #NUM!ProvenanceExcel documents: "If Probability is < 0 or probability is > 1, F.INV.RT returns the #NUM! error value." EXECUTED RESULT: all four LibreOffice builds (24.2.0.3, 24.8.7.2, 25.2.0.3, 25.8.7.3) return #VALUE! here instead of the documented #NUM! -- the same systemic #VALUE!-substitution pattern already recorded across this corpus, an error-code difference rather than a computation one. |
Matched |
| =F.INV.RT(0.01,6,0) | A denominator degrees of freedom below the documented minimum | #NUM! | #NUM!ProvenanceExcel documents: "If Deg_freedom1 is < 1, or Deg_freedom2 is < 1, F.INV.RT returns the #NUM! error value." EXECUTED RESULT: all four LibreOffice builds (24.2.0.3, 24.8.7.2, 25.2.0.3, 25.8.7.3) return #VALUE! here instead of the documented #NUM! -- the same systemic #VALUE!-substitution pattern already recorded across this corpus, an error-code difference rather than a computation one. |
Matched |
| =F.INV.RT("abc",6,4) | A non-numeric argument | #VALUE! | #VALUE!ProvenanceExcel documents: "If any argument is non-numeric, F.INV.RT returns the #VALUE! error value." |
Matched |
Google Sheets (executed 2026-08-31 via Drive import)
Google Sheets is a rolling service with no pinnable version, so this run is identified by its date. The corpus was imported to Drive as .xlsx, recalculated by Sheets, and exported back for readback.
| Formula | Description | Result | Expected | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| =ROUND(F.INV.RT(0.01,6,4),5) | Microsoft's documented worked example: the upper 1% critical value of the F distribution with 6 and 4 degrees of freedom | 15.20686 | 15.20686ProvenanceMicrosoft's page publishes '=F.INV.RT(A2,A3,A4)' over the data 0.01 / 6 / 4 with the result 15.20686. Re-derived independently by solving 1 - P(F <= x) = 0.01 with mpmath at 50 digits: x = 15.206864861157530011, i.e. exactly the published 15.20686 at 5 dp. This is also the x the F.DIST.RT and FDIST pages feed back in as their example argument (15.2068649 and 15.20686486), which is a useful independent confirmation that the three pages describe one consistent distribution. |
Matched |
| =ROUND(F.DIST.RT(F.INV.RT(0.01,6,4),6,4),8) | The documented inverse identity, exercised as a round trip | 0.01 | 0.01ProvenanceMicrosoft documents the pair with the identity "If p = F.DIST.RT(x,...), then F.INV.RT(p,...) = x", and adds that "precision of F.INV.RT depends on precision of F.DIST.RT" because "F.INV.RT uses an iterative search technique". Feeding the inverse straight back into the forward function must therefore return the probability it started from, 0.01, to within the search tolerance. Asserted at 8 dp, which is far looser than the documented 64-iteration search would need to be to fail. |
Matched |
| =F.INV.RT(-0.5,6,4) | A probability outside [0,1] | #NUM! | #NUM!ProvenanceExcel documents: "If Probability is < 0 or probability is > 1, F.INV.RT returns the #NUM! error value." EXECUTED RESULT: all four LibreOffice builds (24.2.0.3, 24.8.7.2, 25.2.0.3, 25.8.7.3) return #VALUE! here instead of the documented #NUM! -- the same systemic #VALUE!-substitution pattern already recorded across this corpus, an error-code difference rather than a computation one. |
Matched |
| =F.INV.RT(0.01,6,0) | A denominator degrees of freedom below the documented minimum | #NUM! | #NUM!ProvenanceExcel documents: "If Deg_freedom1 is < 1, or Deg_freedom2 is < 1, F.INV.RT returns the #NUM! error value." EXECUTED RESULT: all four LibreOffice builds (24.2.0.3, 24.8.7.2, 25.2.0.3, 25.8.7.3) return #VALUE! here instead of the documented #NUM! -- the same systemic #VALUE!-substitution pattern already recorded across this corpus, an error-code difference rather than a computation one. |
Matched |
| =F.INV.RT("abc",6,4) | A non-numeric argument | #VALUE! | #VALUE!ProvenanceExcel documents: "If any argument is non-numeric, F.INV.RT returns the #VALUE! error value." |
Matched |
LibreOffice Calc 25.8.7.3 (tested 2026-08-31)
| Formula | Description | Result | Expected | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| =ROUND(F.INV.RT(0.01,6,4),5) | Microsoft's documented worked example: the upper 1% critical value of the F distribution with 6 and 4 degrees of freedom | 15.20686 | 15.20686ProvenanceMicrosoft's page publishes '=F.INV.RT(A2,A3,A4)' over the data 0.01 / 6 / 4 with the result 15.20686. Re-derived independently by solving 1 - P(F <= x) = 0.01 with mpmath at 50 digits: x = 15.206864861157530011, i.e. exactly the published 15.20686 at 5 dp. This is also the x the F.DIST.RT and FDIST pages feed back in as their example argument (15.2068649 and 15.20686486), which is a useful independent confirmation that the three pages describe one consistent distribution. |
Matched |
| =ROUND(F.DIST.RT(F.INV.RT(0.01,6,4),6,4),8) | The documented inverse identity, exercised as a round trip | 0.01 | 0.01ProvenanceMicrosoft documents the pair with the identity "If p = F.DIST.RT(x,...), then F.INV.RT(p,...) = x", and adds that "precision of F.INV.RT depends on precision of F.DIST.RT" because "F.INV.RT uses an iterative search technique". Feeding the inverse straight back into the forward function must therefore return the probability it started from, 0.01, to within the search tolerance. Asserted at 8 dp, which is far looser than the documented 64-iteration search would need to be to fail. |
Matched |
| =F.INV.RT(-0.5,6,4) | A probability outside [0,1] | #VALUE! | #NUM!ProvenanceExcel documents: "If Probability is < 0 or probability is > 1, F.INV.RT returns the #NUM! error value." EXECUTED RESULT: all four LibreOffice builds (24.2.0.3, 24.8.7.2, 25.2.0.3, 25.8.7.3) return #VALUE! here instead of the documented #NUM! -- the same systemic #VALUE!-substitution pattern already recorded across this corpus, an error-code difference rather than a computation one. |
Mismatch |
| =F.INV.RT(0.01,6,0) | A denominator degrees of freedom below the documented minimum | #VALUE! | #NUM!ProvenanceExcel documents: "If Deg_freedom1 is < 1, or Deg_freedom2 is < 1, F.INV.RT returns the #NUM! error value." EXECUTED RESULT: all four LibreOffice builds (24.2.0.3, 24.8.7.2, 25.2.0.3, 25.8.7.3) return #VALUE! here instead of the documented #NUM! -- the same systemic #VALUE!-substitution pattern already recorded across this corpus, an error-code difference rather than a computation one. |
Mismatch |
| =F.INV.RT("abc",6,4) | A non-numeric argument | #VALUE! | #VALUE!ProvenanceExcel documents: "If any argument is non-numeric, F.INV.RT returns the #VALUE! error value." |
Matched |
Docs & syntax
- Excel (desktop): official documentation
- Google Sheets: official documentation
- LibreOffice Calc: official documentation