Documentation/Calc Functions/STDEV

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    Function name:

    STDEV

    Category:

    Statistical Analysis

    Summary:

    Calculates the sample standard deviation of a set of numbers.

    Syntax:

    STDEV(Number 1[; Number 2[; ...[; Number 255]]])

    Returns:

    Returns a non-negative real number, which is the sample standard deviation of the supplied numbers.

    Arguments:

    Number 1, Number 2, ..., Number 255 give the set of real numbers for which the sample standard deviation is to be calculated. Each argument may be a value or an expression, a reference to a single cell, a reference to a cell range, the name of a named or database range, or an inline array.

    Note that although STDEV can accept up to 255 arguments, each argument could specify a range of cells. This means that the number of real numbers processed could be many more than 255.

    The following conditions (including errors) may be encountered:

    • If any argument is a string in quotation marks, then STDEV reports a parameter list error (Err:504).
    • Text in cells and empty cells are ignored.
    • If less than two numbers are supplied, then STDEV reports a #DIV/0! error.

    Additional details:

    • Calc's STDEV and STDEV.S functions perform identical calculations. The requirements for STDEV are specified in ODF 1.2; STDEV.S is provided for interoperability with Microsoft Excel.
    • The formula for the sample standard deviation ([math]\displaystyle{ s }[/math]) is:
    [math]\displaystyle{ s\:=\:\sqrt{\frac{1}{n-1}\sum_{i=1}^{n}(x_{i}-\bar{x})^2} }[/math]
    where
    • [math]\displaystyle{ n }[/math] is the size of the sample
    • [math]\displaystyle{ x_{i} }[/math] is the i-th value in the sample
    • [math]\displaystyle{ \bar{x} }[/math] is the sample mean

    Examples:

    Formula Description Returns
    =STDEV(A1:A5) where cells A1:A5 contain the values 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 respectively. Here the function calculates the sample standard deviation of the five values in the specified cells. 1.58113883008419
    =STDEV(3; 4; 5; 6; 2; 3; 1) Here the function calculates the sample standard deviation of the seven values passed as individual arguments. 1.71824938596845
    =STDEV({3, 4, -5, 6.05, 2, 3, -1.5}) Here the function calculates the sample standard deviation of the seven values passed in an inline array. 3.71472295961175

    Related LibreOffice functions:

    AVERAGE

    AVERAGEA

    STDEV.P

    STDEV.S

    STDEVA

    STDEVP

    STDEVPA

    VAR

    VAR.P

    VAR.S

    VARA

    VARP

    VARPA

    ODF standard:

    Section 6.18.72, part 2

    Related (or similar) Excel functions:

    STDEV