Calculate the factorial or permutation of a number - Help and How-to

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Calculate the factorial or permutation of a number

Applies to: Microsoft Office Excel 2003

Let's say you have six bells, each with a different tone, and you want to find the number of unique sequences in which each bell can be rung once. In this example, you are calculating the factorial of six. In general, use a factorial to count the number of ways in which a group of distinct items can be arranged (also called permutations). To calculate the factorial of a number, use the FACT function.

Example

The example may be easier to understand if you copy it to a blank worksheet.

Show How to copy an example

Create a blank workbook or worksheet.
Select the example in the Help topic.
Note Do not select the row or column headers.

Selecting an example from Help
Press CTRL+C.
In the worksheet, select cell A1, and press CTRL+V.
To switch between viewing the results and viewing the formulas that return the results, press CTRL+` (grave accent), or on the Tools menu, point to Formula Auditing, and then click Formula Auditing Mode.

1

2

A
Data
6
Formula	Description (Result)
=FACT(A2)	Factorial of 6, or 65432*1 (720)
=FACT(3)	Factorial of 3, or 321 (6)
=FACT(A2+4)	Factorial of 10 (3628800)

Function details

FACT