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Statistical function
CORREL
Returns the correlation coefficient between two data sets, from -1 to 1.
CommonDifficulty 1300 · ProficientUsage rank #124 of 520
When to use it
The correlation coefficient between two sets of numbers, from -1 to 1. Zero means no linear relationship; it says nothing about cause.
The shape of it
- Syntax
=CORREL(array1, array2)
Worked examples
Perfect positive
=CORREL({1,2,3,4},{2,4,6,8}) → 1
Perfectly proportional.
Perfect negative
=CORREL({1,2,3,4},{8,6,4,2}) → -1
Perfectly opposite.
Real data
=CORREL(A2:A13,B2:B13) → 0.83
Marketing spend and sales over twelve months: strong, but not proof of cause.
Worth knowing
- Square it for R², the share of variance explained.
- Correlation is only about straight lines; chart the data to see curves it misses.
- Rank correlation (Spearman) is CORREL of the two RANK.AVG columns.
Where it goes wrong
- #DIV/0! when either array has zero variance.
- #N/A when the arrays are different sizes.
Related
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