The COMBINA function returns the number of ways to choose some number of objects from a pool of a given size of objects, including ways to choose the same object multiple times (also known as choosing with replacement).
Parts of a COMBINA function
COMBINA(n, k)
| Part | Description | Notes |
n |
The size pool of objects to choose from. |
|
k |
The number of objects to choose. |
|
Sample formulas
COMBINA(5, 3)
COMBINA(A1, B1)
Notes
- The order of the chosen objects within the COMBINA function doesn't matter.
COMBINA(n, k)is equivalent toCOMBIN(n+k-1), which can be read as "(n+k-1)choose k" or.
COMBINA(n, k)is also equivalent toFACT(n+k-1)/(FACT(k)*FACT(n-1)), but supports larger numbers as arguments.- If a number (or reference to a number) with a decimal part is provided to COMBINA, the decimal part is silently truncated before calculation.
- If the some of arguments n+k is greater than or equal to 1031, a #NUM! error is returned.
.Examples
In the following example with a pool of 2 objects (for example, A and B), there are 3 possible chosen combinations: (A, B), (A, A), and (B, B):
| A | B | |
| 1 | Formula | Result |
| 2 | =COMBINA(2, 2) | 3 |
In this example with a pool of 5 objects, there are 35 possible chosen combinations of 3 objects:
| A | B | |
| 1 | Formula | Result |
| 2 | =COMBINA(5, 3) | 35 |