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    Calculate Percentiles

    I have a stream of data that is active and i need to calculate where a number is relative to the percentile range. I have a static 25th,50th,65th, 75th,90th range. When I enter a number I want a calculation to tell me what percentile it is between that range.

    Below is my static percentile range. I would like to calculate where what percentile is 5,312 based off of this range. I know about the percentile function but with that one you seem to have to tell it the percentile, I want a calculation that would tell me what the percentile is based off a percentile range 25th to 90th and where it is between those values or sometimes outside of those values.

    25th 50th 65th 75th 90th
    3,991.71 4933.69 5,472.96 5,896.16 7,066.05

    Maybe someone already encountered this issue.

    Thanks.

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    Re: Calculate Percentiles

    In the specific example cited... what is your expected answer?
    Glenn




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    Re: Calculate Percentiles

    If it is simply the RANGE in which it falls...

    =IFERROR(LOOKUP(E3,$B$3:$B$7,$A$3:$A$8)&IFERROR("-"&INDEX($A$3:$A$7,MATCH(E3,$B$3:$B$7,1)+1),"+"),"<25")
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    Re: Calculate Percentiles

    57.1 Percentile is what I calculate.
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    Re: Calculate Percentiles

    It appears that you are using an algorithm where you:

    1) Compute the value for the .25, .5, .6, .75, .9 percentiles from the standard normal distribution. Your doing this in M4:Q4, though I did not understand the purpose of multiplying by C4/C4=1, since this does not change the calculation. There appears to be an assumption that the raw data (in C4:G4) exactly follow a normal distribution.
    2) Once you have the standard normal at each percentile, you are using a simple linear interpolation algorithm to get the percentile that corresponds to your value (in B4). Are you required to use Excel for this? If you can use a different spreadsheet, Gnumeric has a built in interpolation function that makes short work of these kinds of problems. In Gnumeric, I can replace columns R:W with =INTERPOLATION(C4:G4,M4:Q4,B4) to get the interpolated z score.
    3) Once you have the interpolated z score, the percentile (in H4) is a simple NORMSDIST() function.

    The most difficult part of this kind of algorithm in Excel is Excel's lack of an interpolation function that forces you to build your own interpolation algorithm (which is why I prefer Gnumeric for interpolation problems). When users are forced to use Excel for interpolation, I usually recommend something like this: https://www.excelforum.com/excel-for...ml#post5380675 Your approach works just fine, too. If you look earlier in the linked discussion, I mentioned other possible approaches to linear interpolation. The hard part in Excel is the linear interpolation part. If you're content with your approach to linear interpolation, stick with it.

    I don't know if this interpolative approach is the only approach allowed for this, but I also looked at a curve-fitting type approach. As I noted in (1), you seem to be assuming that the raw data map exactly onto a standard normal distribution. A quick look at the raw data suggests there is some noise in the data, so I also considered a non-linear regression to a normal distribution. The regression gave me best fit parameters of 4987 for the mean and 1488 for the standard deviation of the "best fit" normal distribution. With those values, I can use =NORMDIST(5312,4987,1488) to get a percentile of 0.587.

    Are you content with the spreadsheet you have in post #4? Are you looking for something different? What can we help with?
    Quote Originally Posted by shg
    Mathematics is the native language of the natural world. Just trying to become literate.

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    Re: Calculate Percentiles

    This data that I have attached with calculations came from a consulting company. It is not something I developed personally as I do not have a good statistical background for this. Just to give you a background, this data is used to calculate a monthly productivity percentile based off of a numeric input. I have over 200 dashboards in excel which I send out each month through a PDF and email process. At the bottom of these dashboards contains this data which I have attached above. So for each month I report the monthly productivity number, then I annualize it (because these 25th, 50th 65th, 75th, and 90th) percentile spreads are annual totals and measure the input against these spreads. Because I have to repeat this each month I have a bit of a mess below each of these dashboards. So when February happens, I add January and February together, then annualize and measure the percentile. When March passes, I add Jan, Feb, March then annualize and measure against spread. So I have sections for each month in order to accomplish me calculation the percentile and inputting it into the dashboard. Where I was going with this, I was hoping to eliminate some of these calculations that I have attached above with some kind of an easy formula. So I was thinking have a formula where I can annualzie and measure against a table of these percentile spreads and input in the corresponding month.
    Yes and I think you are correct they are assuming this is a normally distributed data which is probably false but a simple way of doing things mechanically. These percentiles come from national surveys and the surveys do not share the complete spread of percentiles so we have to guess based off a normal distribution.

    I will take a look at your post you referenced below point 3) to see if it is helpful.

    but thank you for taking the time to dissect my problem and responding.

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