FINV
Quirk foundCategory: Compatibility · Last tested 2026-09-01
Real compatibility results for the FINV 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) | 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 FINV’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 FINV working in LibreOffice?
FINV 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
-
=FINV(0.01,10000000000,4) on
Excel for the web returned
13.46305070195854, but the documented/expected
result is #NUM!.
Provenance
Excel documents: "If deg_freedom1 < 1 or deg_freedom1 >= 10^10, FINV returns the #NUM! error value." 10^10 is exactly the excluded boundary, and is a constraint the modern F.INV.RT page states only for deg_freedom2. 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 13.46305070195854
-
=FINV(1.5,6,4) on
LibreOffice Calc returned
#VALUE!, but the documented/expected
result is #NUM!.
Provenance
Excel documents: "If probability < 0 or probability > 1, FINV 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!'
-
=FINV(0.01,10000000000,4) on
LibreOffice Calc returned
#VALUE!, but the documented/expected
result is #NUM!.
Provenance
Excel documents: "If deg_freedom1 < 1 or deg_freedom1 >= 10^10, FINV returns the #NUM! error value." 10^10 is exactly the excluded boundary, and is a constraint the modern F.INV.RT page states only for deg_freedom2. 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(FINV(0.01,6,4),6) | Microsoft's documented worked example: the upper 1% critical value, legacy spelling | 15.206865 | 15.206865ProvenanceMicrosoft's page publishes '=FINV(A2,A3,A4)' over the data 0.01 / 6 / 4 with the result 15.206865. Re-derived independently by solving 1 - P(F <= x) = 0.01 with mpmath at 50 digits: x = 15.206864861157530011, i.e. exactly the published 15.206865 at 6 dp. FINV is the pre-2010 spelling of F.INV.RT -- note that despite the name it is the RIGHT-tailed inverse, so it corresponds to F.INV.RT and NOT to the similarly-named modern F.INV, whose page publishes 0.10930991 for the same arguments. Getting that pairing backwards is the classic error with this family, which is why both spellings are asserted in this batch. |
Matched |
| =FINV(1.5,6,4) | A probability outside [0,1] | #NUM! | #NUM!ProvenanceExcel documents: "If probability < 0 or probability > 1, FINV 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 |
| =FINV(0.01,10000000000,4) | A numerator degrees of freedom at the documented upper limit | 13.46305070195854 | #NUM!ProvenanceExcel documents: "If deg_freedom1 < 1 or deg_freedom1 >= 10^10, FINV returns the #NUM! error value." 10^10 is exactly the excluded boundary, and is a constraint the modern F.INV.RT page states only for deg_freedom2. 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 |
| =FINV("abc",6,4) | A non-numeric argument | #VALUE! | #VALUE!ProvenanceExcel documents: "If any argument is nonnumeric, FINV 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(FINV(0.01,6,4),6) | Microsoft's documented worked example: the upper 1% critical value, legacy spelling | 15.206865 | 15.206865ProvenanceMicrosoft's page publishes '=FINV(A2,A3,A4)' over the data 0.01 / 6 / 4 with the result 15.206865. Re-derived independently by solving 1 - P(F <= x) = 0.01 with mpmath at 50 digits: x = 15.206864861157530011, i.e. exactly the published 15.206865 at 6 dp. FINV is the pre-2010 spelling of F.INV.RT -- note that despite the name it is the RIGHT-tailed inverse, so it corresponds to F.INV.RT and NOT to the similarly-named modern F.INV, whose page publishes 0.10930991 for the same arguments. Getting that pairing backwards is the classic error with this family, which is why both spellings are asserted in this batch. |
Matched |
| =FINV(1.5,6,4) | A probability outside [0,1] | #NUM! | #NUM!ProvenanceExcel documents: "If probability < 0 or probability > 1, FINV 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 |
| =FINV(0.01,10000000000,4) | A numerator degrees of freedom at the documented upper limit | #NUM! | #NUM!ProvenanceExcel documents: "If deg_freedom1 < 1 or deg_freedom1 >= 10^10, FINV returns the #NUM! error value." 10^10 is exactly the excluded boundary, and is a constraint the modern F.INV.RT page states only for deg_freedom2. 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 |
| =FINV("abc",6,4) | A non-numeric argument | #VALUE! | #VALUE!ProvenanceExcel documents: "If any argument is nonnumeric, FINV returns the #VALUE! error value." |
Matched |
LibreOffice Calc 25.8.7.3 (tested 2026-08-31)
| Formula | Description | Result | Expected | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| =ROUND(FINV(0.01,6,4),6) | Microsoft's documented worked example: the upper 1% critical value, legacy spelling | 15.206865 | 15.206865ProvenanceMicrosoft's page publishes '=FINV(A2,A3,A4)' over the data 0.01 / 6 / 4 with the result 15.206865. Re-derived independently by solving 1 - P(F <= x) = 0.01 with mpmath at 50 digits: x = 15.206864861157530011, i.e. exactly the published 15.206865 at 6 dp. FINV is the pre-2010 spelling of F.INV.RT -- note that despite the name it is the RIGHT-tailed inverse, so it corresponds to F.INV.RT and NOT to the similarly-named modern F.INV, whose page publishes 0.10930991 for the same arguments. Getting that pairing backwards is the classic error with this family, which is why both spellings are asserted in this batch. |
Matched |
| =FINV(1.5,6,4) | A probability outside [0,1] | #VALUE! | #NUM!ProvenanceExcel documents: "If probability < 0 or probability > 1, FINV 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 |
| =FINV(0.01,10000000000,4) | A numerator degrees of freedom at the documented upper limit | #VALUE! | #NUM!ProvenanceExcel documents: "If deg_freedom1 < 1 or deg_freedom1 >= 10^10, FINV returns the #NUM! error value." 10^10 is exactly the excluded boundary, and is a constraint the modern F.INV.RT page states only for deg_freedom2. 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 |
| =FINV("abc",6,4) | A non-numeric argument | #VALUE! | #VALUE!ProvenanceExcel documents: "If any argument is nonnumeric, FINV returns the #VALUE! error value." |
Matched |
Docs & syntax
- Excel (desktop): official documentation
- Google Sheets: official documentation
- LibreOffice Calc: official documentation