<< Click to Display Table of Contents >> STDEV (standard deviation of a sample)

Note: STDEV is supplemented by the new identical function STDEV.S, which is available in newer versions of Microsoft Excel (2010 or later).

Syntax:

STDEV(Number1, Number2 [, Number3 ...])

Description:

This estimates the standard deviation of a population based on a sample.

The standard deviation indicates the average amount by which the specified values deviate from the mean.

Number1, Number2, etc., are single values, cell ranges or arrays that contain the values to be evaluated (sample).

If this function refers to empty cells or cells with error values, they are ignored. Likewise, cells that contain text strings or logical values, but these can be entered directly into the list of arguments and thus taken into account.

Additional info:

The standard deviation is calculated using the "unbiased" or "n-1" method.

Example:

STDEV(2, 2, 3, 4, 1) returns 1.14018

See also:

STDEV.S, STDEVA, STDEV.P/STDEVP, VAR.P/VARP, VAR.S/VAR, AVEDEV, STANDARDIZE, DEVSQ