In this blog post, I will explain to you how to do a factorial in Excel.
The easiest way to do factorial that is by using the FACT function. This is the simple function categorized as in the Math&Trig category that will calculate a factorial for any positive number provided. It’s available for all versions of Excel starting from Excel 2000.
The factorial is the mathematical term that multiplies all numbers less than a given number. It can be recognized by an exclamation mark after a number. For example, if I want to get the factorial of the number 4, I will write it as 4! The result is: 4! = 4*3*2*1 = 24.
Calculate Factorial in Excel
As I mentioned, Excel enables users to get the factorial of a selected number using the FACT function. This makes my work much easier because otherwise, I would have to type and multiply all numbers manually.
The syntax of the function is:
=FACT(number)
The parameter number is any non-negative number.
In the following example, I want to get a factorial for number 5 in cell A2. To do that, I’ll type the following formula:
=FACT(A2)
Excel returns 120 as a result, because 5! = 5*4*3*2*1, which is 120. Now I will copy the formula from cell B2 down the column in order to get a factorial for other numbers in column A.
Now I have factorials for all wanted numbers. The factorial of 0 will always be 1, as shown in row 7.
Also Learn: Use Euler Number in Excel
Possible Errors When Calculating Factorial in Excel
The first possible error when using the FACT function is providing a non-numeric value as a parameter. In the following example I provided “ABC“:
The result in this case is the #VALUE! Error, because the function can’t interpret a text.
Another possible error (#NUM! Error) cause is entering a negative number. Here, I entered -5 as a function parameter:
There are not many ways to calculate factorial in Excel. All you have to do is to use FACT function.
Now, you know how to do factorial in Excel.
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