FDIST
Quirk foundCategory: Compatibility · Last tested 2026-09-01
Real compatibility results for the FDIST 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) | Quirk found |
| Google Sheets | Yes | Yes (Drive import, 2026-08-31) | Quirk found |
| 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 FDIST’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 FDIST working in LibreOffice?
FDIST 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.
Why isn’t FDIST working in Google Sheets?
FDIST runs in Google Sheets, but our executed cases show it does not match
Excel’s documented behavior on every input (the failing cases are listed on this page). If a
formula that behaves one way in Excel gives you a different answer in Sheets, compare your usage
against those cases before assuming your data is wrong.
Discovered quirks
-
=FDIST(15.20686486,10000000000,4) on
Excel for the web returned
0.007926504197833037, but the documented/expected
result is #NUM!.
Provenance
Excel documents a constraint the modern F.DIST.RT page drops: "If deg_freedom1 < 1 or deg_freedom1 >= 10^10, FDIST returns the #NUM! error value." 10^10 = 10000000000 is exactly the excluded boundary. This is the one place the legacy and modern spellings are documented to differ, which is why the case is here rather than on F.DIST.RT. 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. Worth noting separately: LibreOffice does REJECT the 10^10 degrees of freedom the legacy page excludes -- it just reports the rejection with the wrong token.; MISMATCH vs expected: expected '#NUM!', got 0.007926504197833037
-
=FDIST(15.20686486,10000000000,4) on
Google Sheets returned
0.007926514992, but the documented/expected
result is #NUM!.
Provenance
Excel documents a constraint the modern F.DIST.RT page drops: "If deg_freedom1 < 1 or deg_freedom1 >= 10^10, FDIST returns the #NUM! error value." 10^10 = 10000000000 is exactly the excluded boundary. This is the one place the legacy and modern spellings are documented to differ, which is why the case is here rather than on F.DIST.RT. 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. Worth noting separately: LibreOffice does REJECT the 10^10 degrees of freedom the legacy page excludes -- it just reports the rejection with the wrong token.; MISMATCH vs expected: expected '#NUM!', got 0.007926514992
-
=FDIST(-1,6,4) on
LibreOffice Calc returned
#VALUE!, but the documented/expected
result is #NUM!.
Provenance
Excel documents: "If x is negative, FDIST 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!'
-
=FDIST(15.20686486,10000000000,4) on
LibreOffice Calc returned
#VALUE!, but the documented/expected
result is #NUM!.
Provenance
Excel documents a constraint the modern F.DIST.RT page drops: "If deg_freedom1 < 1 or deg_freedom1 >= 10^10, FDIST returns the #NUM! error value." 10^10 = 10000000000 is exactly the excluded boundary. This is the one place the legacy and modern spellings are documented to differ, which is why the case is here rather than on F.DIST.RT. 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. Worth noting separately: LibreOffice does REJECT the 10^10 degrees of freedom the legacy page excludes -- it just reports the rejection with the wrong token.; MISMATCH vs expected: expected '#NUM!', got '#VALUE!'
-
=FDIST(15.20686486,6,0) on
LibreOffice Calc returned
#VALUE!, but the documented/expected
result is #NUM!.
Provenance
Excel documents: "If deg_freedom2 < 1 or deg_freedom2 >= 10^10, FDIST 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(FDIST(15.20686486,6,4),8) | Microsoft's documented worked example: the right-tailed F distribution, legacy spelling | 0.01 | 0.01ProvenanceMicrosoft's page publishes '=FDIST(A2,A3,A4)' over the data 15.20686486 / 6 / 4 with the result 0.01. Re-derived independently with mpmath at 50 decimal digits from the regularized incomplete beta function -- the closed form of the F cumulative distribution, P(F <= x) = I_{d1*x/(d1*x+d2)}(d1/2, d2/2) -- rather than from any statistics library's F routines. The right tail is 0.010000000001416584763, i.e. 0.01 at 8 dp. FDIST is the pre-2010 spelling of F.DIST.RT and carries Microsoft's compatibility banner, but publishes the same worked example with x given to one more decimal. |
Matched |
| =FDIST(-1,6,4) | A negative x, which the documentation excludes | #NUM! | #NUM!ProvenanceExcel documents: "If x is negative, FDIST 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 |
| =FDIST(15.20686486,10000000000,4) | A numerator degrees of freedom at the documented upper limit | 0.007926504197833037 | #NUM!ProvenanceExcel documents a constraint the modern F.DIST.RT page drops: "If deg_freedom1 < 1 or deg_freedom1 >= 10^10, FDIST returns the #NUM! error value." 10^10 = 10000000000 is exactly the excluded boundary. This is the one place the legacy and modern spellings are documented to differ, which is why the case is here rather than on F.DIST.RT. 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. Worth noting separately: LibreOffice does REJECT the 10^10 degrees of freedom the legacy page excludes -- it just reports the rejection with the wrong token. |
Mismatch |
| =FDIST(15.20686486,6,0) | A denominator degrees of freedom below the documented minimum | #NUM! | #NUM!ProvenanceExcel documents: "If deg_freedom2 < 1 or deg_freedom2 >= 10^10, FDIST 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 |
| =FDIST("abc",6,4) | A non-numeric argument | #VALUE! | #VALUE!ProvenanceExcel documents: "If any argument is nonnumeric, FDIST 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(FDIST(15.20686486,6,4),8) | Microsoft's documented worked example: the right-tailed F distribution, legacy spelling | 0.01 | 0.01ProvenanceMicrosoft's page publishes '=FDIST(A2,A3,A4)' over the data 15.20686486 / 6 / 4 with the result 0.01. Re-derived independently with mpmath at 50 decimal digits from the regularized incomplete beta function -- the closed form of the F cumulative distribution, P(F <= x) = I_{d1*x/(d1*x+d2)}(d1/2, d2/2) -- rather than from any statistics library's F routines. The right tail is 0.010000000001416584763, i.e. 0.01 at 8 dp. FDIST is the pre-2010 spelling of F.DIST.RT and carries Microsoft's compatibility banner, but publishes the same worked example with x given to one more decimal. |
Matched |
| =FDIST(-1,6,4) | A negative x, which the documentation excludes | #NUM! | #NUM!ProvenanceExcel documents: "If x is negative, FDIST 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 |
| =FDIST(15.20686486,10000000000,4) | A numerator degrees of freedom at the documented upper limit | 0.007926514992 | #NUM!ProvenanceExcel documents a constraint the modern F.DIST.RT page drops: "If deg_freedom1 < 1 or deg_freedom1 >= 10^10, FDIST returns the #NUM! error value." 10^10 = 10000000000 is exactly the excluded boundary. This is the one place the legacy and modern spellings are documented to differ, which is why the case is here rather than on F.DIST.RT. 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. Worth noting separately: LibreOffice does REJECT the 10^10 degrees of freedom the legacy page excludes -- it just reports the rejection with the wrong token. |
Mismatch |
| =FDIST(15.20686486,6,0) | A denominator degrees of freedom below the documented minimum | #NUM! | #NUM!ProvenanceExcel documents: "If deg_freedom2 < 1 or deg_freedom2 >= 10^10, FDIST 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 |
| =FDIST("abc",6,4) | A non-numeric argument | #VALUE! | #VALUE!ProvenanceExcel documents: "If any argument is nonnumeric, FDIST returns the #VALUE! error value." |
Matched |
LibreOffice Calc 25.8.7.3 (tested 2026-08-31)
| Formula | Description | Result | Expected | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| =ROUND(FDIST(15.20686486,6,4),8) | Microsoft's documented worked example: the right-tailed F distribution, legacy spelling | 0.01 | 0.01ProvenanceMicrosoft's page publishes '=FDIST(A2,A3,A4)' over the data 15.20686486 / 6 / 4 with the result 0.01. Re-derived independently with mpmath at 50 decimal digits from the regularized incomplete beta function -- the closed form of the F cumulative distribution, P(F <= x) = I_{d1*x/(d1*x+d2)}(d1/2, d2/2) -- rather than from any statistics library's F routines. The right tail is 0.010000000001416584763, i.e. 0.01 at 8 dp. FDIST is the pre-2010 spelling of F.DIST.RT and carries Microsoft's compatibility banner, but publishes the same worked example with x given to one more decimal. |
Matched |
| =FDIST(-1,6,4) | A negative x, which the documentation excludes | #VALUE! | #NUM!ProvenanceExcel documents: "If x is negative, FDIST 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 |
| =FDIST(15.20686486,10000000000,4) | A numerator degrees of freedom at the documented upper limit | #VALUE! | #NUM!ProvenanceExcel documents a constraint the modern F.DIST.RT page drops: "If deg_freedom1 < 1 or deg_freedom1 >= 10^10, FDIST returns the #NUM! error value." 10^10 = 10000000000 is exactly the excluded boundary. This is the one place the legacy and modern spellings are documented to differ, which is why the case is here rather than on F.DIST.RT. 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. Worth noting separately: LibreOffice does REJECT the 10^10 degrees of freedom the legacy page excludes -- it just reports the rejection with the wrong token. |
Mismatch |
| =FDIST(15.20686486,6,0) | A denominator degrees of freedom below the documented minimum | #VALUE! | #NUM!ProvenanceExcel documents: "If deg_freedom2 < 1 or deg_freedom2 >= 10^10, FDIST 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 |
| =FDIST("abc",6,4) | A non-numeric argument | #VALUE! | #VALUE!ProvenanceExcel documents: "If any argument is nonnumeric, FDIST returns the #VALUE! error value." |
Matched |
Docs & syntax
- Excel (desktop): official documentation
- Google Sheets: official documentation
- LibreOffice Calc: official documentation
Where FDIST behaves differently
- Every error code LibreOffice reports as #VALUE!
Across our 2,334-case executed corpus, 272 cases in 135 functions return #VALUE! in LibreOffice Calc 25.8.7.3 where Microsoft documents #NUM! (244), #N/A (15), #DIV/0! (10) or #REF! (3). Google Sheets returns the documented code on 239 of the 249 it has a function for. Identical in all four LibreOffice builds tested.