WorksheetFunction.Poisson method (Excel)

Article
07/12/2022

Returns the Poisson distribution. A common application of the Poisson distribution is predicting the number of events over a specific time, such as the number of cars arriving at a toll plaza in 1 minute.

Important

This function has been replaced with one or more new functions that may provide improved accuracy and whose names better reflect their usage. This function is still available for compatibility with earlier versions of Excel. However, if backward compatibility is not required, you should consider using the new functions from now on, because they more accurately describe their functionality.

For more information about the new function, see the Poisson_Dist method.

Syntax

expression.Poisson (Arg1, Arg2, Arg3)

expression A variable that represents a WorksheetFunction object.

Parameters

Name	Required/Optional	Data type	Description
Arg1	Required	Double	X - the number of events.
Arg2	Required	Double	Mean - the expected numeric value.
Arg3	Required	Boolean	Cumulative - a logical value that determines the form of the probability distribution returned. If cumulative is True, Poisson returns the cumulative Poisson probability that the number of random events occurring will be between zero and x inclusive; if False, it returns the Poisson probability mass function that the number of events occurring will be exactly x.

Return value

Double

Remarks

If x is not an integer, it is truncated.

If x or mean is nonnumeric, Poisson returns the #VALUE! error value.

If x < 0, Poisson returns the #NUM! error value.

If mean ≤ 0, Poisson returns the #NUM! error value.

Poisson is calculated as follows. For cumulative = False:

For cumulative = True:

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