Excel 2000 in a Nutshell

Name

COMBIN

Synopsis

You can use COMBIN to determine the number of combinations of items of a specified size that are created out of the specified number of items. For COMBIN, the order of arrangement does not matter, so (a,b,c) is the same combination as (b,c,a). If order does matter, you can use PERMUT (refer to Chapter 15).

To Calculate

=COMBIN(Number, Number_Chosen)

All arguments are required and must have a value.

Number

An integer value that indicates the number of items that you want to combine.

Number_Chosen

An integer value that indicates the number of items that you want to place in each group.

Example

Figure 14-6 illustrates how COMBIN is used to determine the number of unique groups of three that are created out of the specified number of items.

Figure 14-6. COMBIN determines the number of unique combinations that are created from the specified number of items