Formulas and functions > Functions from A to Z

Note: VAR is supplemented by the new identical function VAR.S, which is available in newer versions of Microsoft Excel (2010 or later).

Syntax:

VAR(Number1, Number2 [, Number3 ...])

Description:

This estimates the variance of a population based on a sample.

Number1, Number2, etc., are single values, cell ranges or arrays that contain the values to be evaluated (sample).

If this function refers to empty cells or cells with error values, they are ignored. Likewise, cells that contain text strings or logical values, but these can be entered directly into the list of arguments and thus taken into account.

Note:

The variance is calculated using the "unbiased" or "n-1" method.

Example:

VAR(2, 2, 3, 4, 1) returns 1.3

VAR (variance of a sample)

VAR (variance of a sample)