How to use the COMBINA function
What is the COMBINA function?
The COMBINA function calculates the number of combinations with repetition for a given number of elements from a larger group of elements. The COMBINA function was introduced in Excel 2013
Explain what combination is?
A combination is a way of selecting items from a collection where the order of selection does not matter.
For example, if you have three fruits, say an apple, an orange, and a pear. There are three combinations of two that can be drawn from this set:
- apple and a pear
- apple and an orange
- pear and an orange
What is the name if the order of selection matter?
Permutation. An example are digits in a phone number, the order is very important or you will call the wrong number.
What is repetition allowed?
Repetition allowed is when there can be duplicate values.
What is an element?
An element refers to an item which can be anything.
What is the difference between the COMBIN function and the COMBINA function?
The difference is that COMBIN counts the number of combinations without repetitions, while COMBINA counts the number of combinations with repetitions.
For example, if you have three items A, B, and C, and you want to choose two of them:
- COMBIN will give you three possible combinations: AB, AC, and BC.
- COMBINA will give you six possible combinations: AA, AB, AC, BB, BC, and CC.
Explain what permutation is?
A permutation is a way of arranging a set of elements in a specific order. For example, if you have three letters A, B, and C, you can arrange them in six different ways: ABC, ACB, BAC, BCA, CAB, and CBA.
Each of these arrangements is called a permutation of the three letters. The order of the objects matters in a permutation, so ABC and BAC are considered different permutations.
The PERMUT and PERMUTA function are in the Statistical category
How can I create a list of combinations with repetition?
What is the difference between combination and permutation?
How can I create a list of permutations with repetition?
1. COMBINA Function Syntax
COMBINA(number, number_chosen)
2. COMBINA Function Arguments
| number | Required. A number greater than or equal to zero and greater than or equal to Number_chosen. |
| number_chosen | Required. A number greater than or equal to 0. |
Comments
The example above shows all combinations from 2 out of 3 numbers (1,2,3) with repetition allowed.
3. COMBINA Function example
Formula in cell D3:
For example, if you have 10 items and you want to choose 3 of them, the COMBINA function will tell you how many different ways you can do that, allowing for duplicates.
4. COMBINA Function not working
Functions in 'Math and trigonometry' category
The COMBINA function function is one of many functions in the 'Math and trigonometry' category.
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