How to calculate t value in Excel

by Best Excel Tutorial Statistics

In this Excel tutorial lesson, we’ll explore a valuable statistical concept, T-Value, and how to calculate it using Microsoft Excel.

Understanding the T-Value

A T-Value is a statistical calculation using the mean, standard deviation, and degrees of freedom. It will help in financial projections and forecasting.

With this information, a business owner can calculate the statistical low and high for earnings in a specific month and with a degree of confidence that the future earnings will fall within that range, which helps with better business planning. Projections might suggest that the business can expect to gross $150,000 in May and the T-Value might tell them that number has a 90-percent rate of confidence. If the confidence rate is less than 50-percent, the business can plan for the potential of a lower return and work to increase the T-Value for future months and years.

The syntax

Let us show you how to calculate the T value using a simple formula in Excel:

The Formula =T.DIST(x,deg_freedom,tails)

The T.DIST function uses the following arguments:

  • X (required argument) – This is the numeric value at which we wish to evaluate the T Distribution.
  • Deg_freedom (required argument) – An integer that indicates the number of degrees of freedom.
  • Tails (required argument) – Specifies the number of tails for the distribution (1 for a one-tailed test, 2 for a two-tailed test).

Data

Let’s create the data for the calculation:

T dist function

  • x: 2
  • degrees of freedom: 10
  • Tails: 1

The T.DIST formula

The formula is applied as below:

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=T.DIST(B3,B4,B5)

excel t.dist function

Result is:

excel t.dist formula

The T dist function result is 0.963306. This means that the probability of obtaining a T-value of 2 or greater in a one-tailed test with 10 degrees of freedom is approximately 96.33%.

Using the T.INV Function

To calculate the t-value in Microsoft Excel, you can also use the T.INV function. The T.INV function calculates the one-tailed probability of the t-distribution. The function has two arguments:

  1. Probability (p): The probability associated with the t-distribution. This argument must be between 0 and 1, exclusive.
  2. Degrees of freedom (df): The number of degrees of freedom in the t-distribution. This argument must be greater than 0.

Example:

To calculate the t-value with a probability of 0.025 and degrees of freedom of 10, you would enter the following formula in a cell in Excel:

=T.INV(0.025, 10)

This formula returns the critical T-value for a one-tailed distribution with a 2.5% significance level and 10 degrees of freedom.

This would return the t-value of -1.83311293. This result represents the critical T-value for a one-tailed distribution with a 2.5% significance level and 10 degrees of freedom. It is used to determine the cut-off point beyond which the test results would be considered statistically significant.

Summary

T.DIST is useful for finding the probability associated with a given T-value.

T.INV helps find the T-value corresponding to a specific probability.

Both functions are essential for performing statistical analysis in Excel, especially for hypothesis testing and financial forecasting.

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