FISHERINV
Supported, behaves as documentedCategory: Statistical · Last tested 2026-09-01
Real compatibility results for the FISHERINV 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) | Supported, behaves as documented |
LibreOffice version history
We executed the same test cases under each LibreOffice release to show exactly when FISHERINV’s support changed — not documentation claims, real results.
| LibreOffice version | Verdict | Tested |
|---|---|---|
| 24.2.0.3 | Supported, behaves as documented | 2026-08-31 |
| 24.8.7.2 | Supported, behaves as documented | 2026-08-31 |
| 25.2.0.3 | Supported, behaves as documented | 2026-08-31 |
| 25.8.7.3 | Supported, behaves as documented | 2026-08-31 |
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(FISHERINV(0.972955),2) | Microsoft's documented worked example, at the depth the page prints | 0.75 | 0.75ProvenanceMicrosoft's page publishes '=FISHERINV(0.972955)' with the result 0.75. Re-derived independently with mpmath at 50 decimal digits from the documented inverse transformation, the hyperbolic tangent: tanh(0.972955) = 0.74999996739414839198. That is NOT 0.75 -- the published "0.75" is a 2-decimal presentation, because the page's argument 0.972955 is itself a 6-decimal rounding of FISHER(0.75) = 0.97295507452765665255. This case asserts the published figure at the 2 decimals it is actually printed to; the companion case below asserts the true value at full depth. |
Matched |
| =ROUND(FISHERINV(0.972955),8) | The same example at eight decimals, where the rounded argument shows | 0.74999997 | 0.74999997Provenancetanh(0.972955) = 0.74999996739414839198 (mpmath, 50 dps), i.e. 0.74999997 at 8 dp. Asserted separately from the documented 2-decimal figure so the assertion depth is auditable rather than arbitrary: an engine that returned a literal 0.75 here would be wrong, not precise. |
Matched |
| =ROUND(FISHERINV(FISHER(0.75)),12) | The documented inverse identity, exercised without the rounded intermediate | 0.75 | 0.75ProvenanceMicrosoft documents the pair as "If y = FISHER(x), then FISHERINV(y) = x". Composing them directly avoids the 6-decimal truncation the published example carries, so the identity can be asserted at 12 decimals: tanh(atanh(0.75)) = 0.75. This is the case that actually tests the documented relationship rather than the page's rounding. |
Matched |
| =FISHERINV(0) | The inverse transformation at zero | 0 | 0ProvenanceDerived from the documented inverse transformation: tanh(0) = 0 exactly. Asserted without a ROUND() wrapper because the value is exact, which catches an engine whose series expansion is not odd-symmetric at the origin. |
Matched |
| =FISHERINV("abc") | A non-numeric argument | #VALUE! | #VALUE!ProvenanceExcel documents: "If y is nonnumeric, FISHERINV 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(FISHERINV(0.972955),2) | Microsoft's documented worked example, at the depth the page prints | 0.75 | 0.75ProvenanceMicrosoft's page publishes '=FISHERINV(0.972955)' with the result 0.75. Re-derived independently with mpmath at 50 decimal digits from the documented inverse transformation, the hyperbolic tangent: tanh(0.972955) = 0.74999996739414839198. That is NOT 0.75 -- the published "0.75" is a 2-decimal presentation, because the page's argument 0.972955 is itself a 6-decimal rounding of FISHER(0.75) = 0.97295507452765665255. This case asserts the published figure at the 2 decimals it is actually printed to; the companion case below asserts the true value at full depth. |
Matched |
| =ROUND(FISHERINV(0.972955),8) | The same example at eight decimals, where the rounded argument shows | 0.74999997 | 0.74999997Provenancetanh(0.972955) = 0.74999996739414839198 (mpmath, 50 dps), i.e. 0.74999997 at 8 dp. Asserted separately from the documented 2-decimal figure so the assertion depth is auditable rather than arbitrary: an engine that returned a literal 0.75 here would be wrong, not precise. |
Matched |
| =ROUND(FISHERINV(FISHER(0.75)),12) | The documented inverse identity, exercised without the rounded intermediate | 0.75 | 0.75ProvenanceMicrosoft documents the pair as "If y = FISHER(x), then FISHERINV(y) = x". Composing them directly avoids the 6-decimal truncation the published example carries, so the identity can be asserted at 12 decimals: tanh(atanh(0.75)) = 0.75. This is the case that actually tests the documented relationship rather than the page's rounding. |
Matched |
| =FISHERINV(0) | The inverse transformation at zero | 0 | 0ProvenanceDerived from the documented inverse transformation: tanh(0) = 0 exactly. Asserted without a ROUND() wrapper because the value is exact, which catches an engine whose series expansion is not odd-symmetric at the origin. |
Matched |
| =FISHERINV("abc") | A non-numeric argument | #VALUE! | #VALUE!ProvenanceExcel documents: "If y is nonnumeric, FISHERINV returns the #VALUE! error value." |
Matched |
LibreOffice Calc 25.8.7.3 (tested 2026-08-31)
| Formula | Description | Result | Expected | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| =ROUND(FISHERINV(0.972955),2) | Microsoft's documented worked example, at the depth the page prints | 0.75 | 0.75ProvenanceMicrosoft's page publishes '=FISHERINV(0.972955)' with the result 0.75. Re-derived independently with mpmath at 50 decimal digits from the documented inverse transformation, the hyperbolic tangent: tanh(0.972955) = 0.74999996739414839198. That is NOT 0.75 -- the published "0.75" is a 2-decimal presentation, because the page's argument 0.972955 is itself a 6-decimal rounding of FISHER(0.75) = 0.97295507452765665255. This case asserts the published figure at the 2 decimals it is actually printed to; the companion case below asserts the true value at full depth. |
Matched |
| =ROUND(FISHERINV(0.972955),8) | The same example at eight decimals, where the rounded argument shows | 0.74999997 | 0.74999997Provenancetanh(0.972955) = 0.74999996739414839198 (mpmath, 50 dps), i.e. 0.74999997 at 8 dp. Asserted separately from the documented 2-decimal figure so the assertion depth is auditable rather than arbitrary: an engine that returned a literal 0.75 here would be wrong, not precise. |
Matched |
| =ROUND(FISHERINV(FISHER(0.75)),12) | The documented inverse identity, exercised without the rounded intermediate | 0.75 | 0.75ProvenanceMicrosoft documents the pair as "If y = FISHER(x), then FISHERINV(y) = x". Composing them directly avoids the 6-decimal truncation the published example carries, so the identity can be asserted at 12 decimals: tanh(atanh(0.75)) = 0.75. This is the case that actually tests the documented relationship rather than the page's rounding. |
Matched |
| =FISHERINV(0) | The inverse transformation at zero | 0 | 0ProvenanceDerived from the documented inverse transformation: tanh(0) = 0 exactly. Asserted without a ROUND() wrapper because the value is exact, which catches an engine whose series expansion is not odd-symmetric at the origin. |
Matched |
| =FISHERINV("abc") | A non-numeric argument | #VALUE! | #VALUE!ProvenanceExcel documents: "If y is nonnumeric, FISHERINV returns the #VALUE! error value." |
Matched |
Docs & syntax
- Excel (desktop): official documentation
- Google Sheets: official documentation
- LibreOffice Calc: official documentation