This paper is a good place to start: McCullough BD and Wilson B 1999 On the accuracy of statistical procedures in MS Excel 97. Computational Statistics & Data Analysis 31: 27-37.
Abstract: The reliability of statistical procedures in Excel are assessed in three areas: estimation (both linear and nonlinear); random number generation; and statistical distributions (e.g., for calculating p-values). Excel's performance in all three areas is found to be inadequate. Persons desiring to conduct statistical analyses of data are advised not to use Excel. Cheers, Terri Lacourse At 09:53 AM 12/09/2006 -0500, Steve Brewer wrote: >I've heard numerous complaints about calculation errors by Excel, but >rarely are these complaints accompanied by specific examples. I have used >Excel for matrix calculations and have not encountered any problems. I >don't dispute the existence of these errors, but I would like to see >specific examples, so I can check for myself. > >Thanks, > >Steve Brewer > > >-- >Department of Biology >PO Box 1848 >University of Mississippi >University, Mississippi 38677-1848 > >Brewer web page - http://home.olemiss.edu/~jbrewer/ > >FAX - 662-915-5144 >Phone - 662-915-1077 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Terri Lacourse, Ph.D. NSERC Postdoctoral Fellow Department of Botany University of British Columbia 6270 University Blvd Vancouver, BC, Canada V6T 1Z4 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
