# VARPA

## Content

This function returns variance based on the entire population, which includes numeric, logical, or text values.

## Syntax

`VARPA(value1, [value2], ...)`

## Arguments

<span data-teams="true">This function has these arguments:</span>

| <span data-teams="true">Argument</span> | <span data-teams="true">Description</span> |
| -------- | ----------- |
| <span data-teams="true"> </span>*<span data-teams="true">value1, value2, ...</span>* | <span data-teams="true"> </span>Value1 is required, subsequent values are optional. 1 to 255 value arguments corresponding to a population. |

## Remarks

The variance returns how spread out a set of data is.
Each argument can be a double-precision floating-point value, an integer value, text, a logical value, or an array (cell range) of these. Up to 255 arguments may be included. You can use a single array (cell range) instead of a list of values. You can use multiple arrays (cell ranges) as well.

* This function uses the following equation to calculate the variance, where *n* is the number of values.
    ![](https://cdn.mescius.io/document-site-files/images/8d606653-16a0-474d-b9dc-e2b4d01c2446/images/Func-VARPA.png)
    where x is the value and n is the number of values.

This function assumes that its arguments are the entire population. If your data represents only a sample of the population, then compute the variance using the [VARA](/document-solutions/dot-net-excel-api/docs/online/formula-reference/statistical-functions/vara) function.
This function differs from VARP because it accepts logical and text values as well as numeric values.

## Examples

`VARPA(B3,C4,B2,D10,E5)`
`VARPA(A1:A9) VARPA(R1C2,100,R2C5,102)`
`VARPA(98,85,76,87,92,89,90)` gives the result 39.2653061224