The CONFIDENCE function. as stipulated in OOXML, returns the confidence interval around a population sample being given an alpha value, a standard deviation and a sample size. The problem is that this function is under-defined. One must make an assumption, not stated here, as to the shape of the data distribution.

It is requested to clarify that the distribution used is a normal distribution.

Part 4,Section 3.17.7.47

te

Proposed Disposition of DIS 29500 Comment UY-0011 (Modified: 2007-12-05) The CONFIDENCE function assumes a normal distribution, and this will be noted in Part 4, §3.17.7.47, page 2,571, line 30, as shown below. Certainly, other definitions of CONFIDENCE are possible; an implementation could define a new function to support additional distribution types. In the interest of backwards compatibility with the corpus of existing documents, it was decided to not modify the existing function to support alternate distribution types. 3.17.7.47 CONFIDENCE Syntax: CONFIDENCE ( alpha , standard-dev , size ) Description: Computes a value that can be used to construct a confidence interval for a population mean. The CONFIDENCE function assumes a normal distribution for calculation. Similar Comments: AU-0027 , CL-0179 , CO-0171 , DK-0163 , ECMA-0026 , FR-0502 , GB-0383 , US-0182 ,