Simple variance
| A | |
|---|---|
| 1 | Value |
| 2 | 2 |
| 3 | 4 |
| 4 | 6 |
Formula: C2: =VAR.S(A2:A4)
Result: 4
Squared deviations total eight and divide by n-1, which is two.
Google Sheets function
VAR.S in Google Sheets
VAR.S with worked examples you can test in the live grid. The argument details are in the Excel guide.
In Google Sheets
The arguments and common errors are covered in the VAR.S Excel guide; check the function help in Google Sheets for its own argument list.
Worked examples in Google Sheets
No variation
| A | |
|---|---|
| 1 | Value |
| 2 | 5 |
| 3 | 5 |
| 4 | 5 |
Formula: C2: =VAR.S(A2:A4)
Result: 0
Equal observations have zero variance.
Square of the standard deviation
| A | |
|---|---|
| 1 | Value |
| 2 | 2 |
| 3 | 3 |
| 4 | 10 |
Formula: C2: =ROUND(STDEV.S(A2:A4)^2,6)
Result: 19
Squaring STDEV.S gives the same 19 that VAR.S returns.
Try it
A tiny spreadsheet with example data. Edit the formula or any number and see the result.
Formula in F2: =VAR.S(C2:C7)
| A | B | C | D | E | F | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Region | Product | Units | Price | Result | |
| 2 | East | Pen | 120 | 2.5 | 1426.66666667 | |
| 3 | West | Pen | 80 | 2.5 | ||
| 4 | East | Book | 45 | 12 | ||
| 5 | North | Book | 60 | 12 | ||
| 6 | West | Lamp | 30 | 25 | ||
| 7 | East | Lamp | 15 | 25 |
Result in F2: 1426.66666667
Google Sheets is used here only as a descriptive product name. FormulaCamp is not affiliated with Google.