The Excel VAR Function

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Related Function:  VARP Function

Variance & Sample Variance

The Variance is a statistical measure, that is commonly used across a set of values, to identify the amount that the values vary from the average value.

When your data set is a sample of a population, (rather than an entire population), you should use a slightly modified form of Variance, known as the Sample Variance. The equation for this is :

where x is the average (statistical mean) of the set of values, and n is the number of values.

A full explanation can be found on the Wikipedia Variance page (link opens in a new window)

VAR and VAR.S

In Excel 2010, the VAR function has been replaced by the VAR.S function, which has improved accuracy.

Although it has been replaced, the Var function is still available in Excel 2010 (stored in the list of compatibility functions), to allow compatibility with earlier versions of Excel.

Basic Description

The Excel VAR function returns the variance of a sample set of values from a population.

The format of the function is :

Where the number arguments provide a minimum of 2 numerical values to the function. You can enter up to 254 number arguments to the Var function in Excel 2007 or Excel 2010, but you can only enter up to 30 number arguments in Excel 2003.

Note that the Var function is used when calculating the variance 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 variance for an entire population, you need to use the Excel Varp or the Excel Var.P function.

Note also, that the Var function ignores text values and logical values if these are supplied as part of an array. However, if they are supplied directly to the function, text representations of numbers and logical values are interpreted as numbers. If you want a sample variance calculation that does not ignore text and logical values that are supplied as a part of an array, consider using the Vara function.

Var Function Example

Imagine you wanted to find out the variance 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 variance 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 :

As shown in cell H3, the variance of the individual heights of the sample group is 9.261904762 cm.

Other Argument Types

The example above shows the arguments to the Var function being input in the form of 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 we could add these directly into the above function as follows:

Either as individual numbers:

Or, as an array of numbers:

Further information and examples of the Excel Var function can be found on the Microsoft Office website.

Trouble Shooting

If you get an error from the Excel Var Function, this is likely to be the #DIV/0! error:

Some users may also encounter the following problem with the Var function: