Hey there, fellow spreadsheet enthusiasts! Today, I want to talk about one of my all-time favorite Google Sheets formulas: PERCENTRANK.INC. Before we dive in, let me give you a little background on why I'm so excited about this formula.
As a CMO, I'm always looking for new and innovative ways to analyze data. But, let's be honest, data analysis can be pretty dry and boring. That's why I love using PERCENTRANK.INC - it's a quick and easy way to turn a bunch of numbers into something meaningful and actionable.
PERCENTRANK.INC is a Google Sheets formula that calculates the rank percentiles for a specified range of values. Confused? Don't worry, I'll break it down for you.
Let's say you have a list of sales numbers for your company, and you want to know where each salesperson ranks in terms of performance. You can use PERCENTRANK.INC to see what percentage of salespeople performed better or worse than a particular individual.
Here's the syntax for PERCENTRANK.INC:
PERCENTRANK.INC(array, x, [significance])
- Array: This is the range of numbers you want to rank.
- X: This represents the value you want to rank within the array.
- Significance: This is an optional argument that determines how many decimal places PERCENTRANK.INC will return. If you leave it blank, Google Sheets will default to 3 decimal places.
Let's look at an example. Say you have the following sales numbers:
| Salesperson | Sales |
|---|---|
| John | 100 |
| Sarah | 150 |
| Tom | 75 |
| Jane | 200 |
If you want to know what percentage of salespeople performed worse than Jane, you can use the following formula:
=PERCENTRANK.INC(B2:B5,B5)*100%
The formula will return 25%, meaning that 25% of salespeople performed worse than Jane.
So why should you bother with PERCENTRANK.INC? Well, for one, it's a handy way to make sense of a bunch of numbers. If you have a large dataset, it can be overwhelming to try to make sense of it all. PERCENTRANK.INC makes it easy to pinpoint the outliers and see how each data point relates to the larger set.
PERCENTRANK.INC is also great for benchmarking. Let's say you have a target sales number for the month, and you want to see how your team is performing. You can use PERCENTRANK.INC to see what percentage of your team is meeting or exceeding the target.
Like any formula, there are a few tips and tricks you should keep in mind when using PERCENTRANK.INC. Here are a few that I've picked up along the way:
So there you have it - PERCENTRANK.INC in a nutshell. I hope this article has been helpful in explaining what it is, why you should use it, and how to use it effectively. Remember, the more you play around with this formula, the more comfortable you'll become with it. And who knows - maybe you'll even start to find data analysis exciting!
