VARA

Returns the sample variance (allowing text and logical values).

Syntax:

VARA(number1, number2, ... number30)

number1 to number30 are up to 30 numbers or ranges containing numbers. Logical values and text may also be included.

VARA returns the standard deviation where number1 to number30 are a sample of the entire population.

Logical values are regarded as 1 (TRUE) and 0 (FALSE).

Text values are always regarded as zero.

With N values in the sample, the calculation formula is:

$\frac{1}{N - 1} \sum_{i = 1}^{N} (x_{i} - \overline{x})^{2}$

Example:

VARA(2, 6, 4)

returns 4.

VARA(B1:B3)

where cells B1, B2, B3 contain red, TRUE, and 2 returns 1, the variance of 0, 1 and 2.

Application:

Imagine a company, "Tech Innovations Inc.," wants to analyze the variance in the daily number of new customer sign-ups over the past week to understand the consistency of their growth. They track the number of sign-ups each day.

Here is the data they collected:

	Day	Number of New Sign-ups
	A	B
1	Monday	15
2	Tuesday	18
3	Wednesday	22
4	Thursday	16
5	Friday	19
6	Saturday	25
7	Sunday	20

To calculate the sample variance using the VARA function, you would apply the function to the "Number of New Sign-ups" column.

The VARA function would take the following arguments: VARA(15, 18, 22, 16, 19, 25, 20).

The VARA function would then calculate the sample variance, which in this case is approximately 11.9. This value indicates how spread out the daily sign-up numbers are from the average. A higher variance would suggest more fluctuation in sign-ups, while a lower variance would indicate more consistent growth.

Result for VARA(15, 18, 22, 16, 19, 25, 20):

11.9