This function returns the standard deviation for a set of numbers.

Syntax

STDEV(value1,value2,...)

Arguments

Each argument can be a cell, a cell range, a float value, or an integer value. This function can have up to 255 arguments.

Remarks

The standard deviation is a measure of how widely values are dispersed from the average value.

The standard deviation is calculated using the "non-biased" or "n–1" method.

The equation for calculating the standard deviation is:

where x is the value and n is the number of values.

This function assumes that its arguments are a sample of the population. If your data represents the entire population, then compute the standard deviation using the STDEVP function.

This function differs from the STDEVA, which allows text or logical values as well as numeric values.

Data Types

Accepts numeric data for all arguments. Returns numeric data.

Examples

STDEV(A1,B2,C3,D4,E5,F6)

STDEV(A1:A9)

STDEV(R1C2,R3C4,R4C5,R7C2)

STDEV(95,89,73,87,85,76,100,96,96) gives the result 9.3422576382

Version Available

This function is available in product version 1.0 or later.

See Also

AVEDEV | AVERAGE | Statistical Functions