Owner manual

VARP

The VARP function returns the population (true) variance, a measure of dispersion, of a

collection of values.

VARP(num-date, num-date…)

Â num-date: A value. num-date is a number value or a date/time value.

Â num-date…:Optionally include one or more additional values. If more than one

num-date value is specied, all must be of the same type.

Usage Notes

The VARP function nds the population, or true, variance (as opposed to the sample, Â

or unbiased, variance) by dividing the sum of the squares of the deviations of the

data points by the number of values.

It is appropriate to use VARP when the specied values represent the entire Â

collection or population. If the values you are analyzing represent only a sample of a

larger population, use the VAR function.

If you want to include text or Boolean values in the computation, use the VARPA Â

function.

The square root of the variance returned by the VARP function is returned by the Â

STDEVP function.

Example

Assume you have administered ve tests to a group of students. You have a very small class and this

represents the total population of your students. Using this population data, you could use the VARP

function to determine which test had the widest dispersion of test scores.

The results of the VARP functions are approximately 416.00, 481.60, 72.24, 52.16, and 8.96. So test 2 had

the highest dispersion, followed closely by test 1. The other three tests had low dispersion.

Test 1 Test 2 Test 3 Test 4 Test 5

Student 1 75 82 90 78 84

Student 2 100 90 95 88 90

Student 3 40 80 78 90 85

Student 4 80 35 95 98 92

Student 5 75 82 90 78 84

=VARP(B2:B6) =VARP(C2:C6) =VARP(D2:D6) =VARP(E2:E6) =VARP(F2:F6)