COMBIN formula in Excel with examples

The COMBIN function in Excel calculates the number of combinations for a given set of items. It’s particularly useful when you want to determine how many ways you can choose a specific number of items from a larger pool without regard to their order. Let’s dive into some examples:

1. Basic Usage:

   • To find the number of ways to choose 3 items out of a set of 10, use the formula:

     =COMBIN(10, 3)  // Returns 120
     

   • Here, 10 represents the total number of items, and 3 is the number of items chosen in each combination.

2. Practical Scenarios:

   • Suppose you have a group of 5 friends, and you want to know how many ways you can form a 2-person team:

     =COMBIN(5, 2)  // Returns 10
     

   • This tells you there are 10 different ways to create a team of 2 friends from the group of 5.

3. Visualizing Pairings:

   • Imagine you have a deck of 52 playing cards, and you want to know how many ways you can select 2 cards:

     =COMBIN(52, 2)  // Returns 1,326
     

   • There are 1,326 possible ways to choose a pair of cards from the deck.

Remember that the COMBIN function doesn’t allow repetitions (i.e., once an item is chosen, it cannot be chosen again). If you need to consider repetitions, you can explore the COMBINA function. Happy Excel-ing!