Excel - Microsoft Excel STDEV Function

Description

The Excel STDEV function calculates the sample standard deviation of a supplied set of values. 

The format of the function is : 

STDEV( number1, [number2], ... ) 

where the arguments, number1, [number2], etc, are one or more numerical values or references to cells containing numbers. 

If you are using Excel 2007 or Excel 2010, you can enter up to 255 number arguments to the function. However, in Excel 2003, the function can only accept up to 30 number arguments. 

Note that the Stdev function is used when calculating the standard deviation for a sample of a population (eg. if your data set records the individual heights of a sample of UK males). If you are calculating the standard deviation of an entire population, you need to use the Stdevp function. 

Note also, that the Stdev function ignores text values and logical values if these are supplied as part of an array. If you want a function that includes text and logical values in the calculation, consider using the Stdeva function. 

Imagine you wanted to find out the standard deviation of the heights of adult males in London. It is not realistic to measure the height of all males, but you could take a sample of the population and measure their heights. 

The example spreadsheet on the right stores the measurements (in cm) of 3,000 adult males. The measured heights are stored in cells B3 - B1002, D3 - D1002 and F3 - F1002. 

The standard deviation of the heights of the sample group is calculated in cell H3 of the spreadsheet. The formula for this, as shown in the formula bar, is : 

=STDEV( B3:B1002, D3:D1002, F3:F1002 ) 

As shown in cell H3, the standard deviation in the individual heights of the sample group is 5.4 cm. 

Other Argument Types

In the example above, the arguments to the Stdev function are input as 3 cell ranges. However, you can also input figures directly, as individual numbers or number arrays. 

For example, if you wanted to include two further heights, of 176cm and 177cm into the sample, you could add these directly into the above function as follows: 

Either as individual numbers: 

=STDEV( B3:B1002, D3:D1002, F3:F1002, 176, 177 ) 

Or, as an array of numbers: 

=STDEV( B3:B1002, D3:D1002, F3:F1002, {176,177} ) 

Stdev Function Errors

If you get an error from the Excel Stdev function this is likely to be one of the following: 

Common Errors