How to Use Excel's VARPA Function

By eHow Computers Editor

Rate: (0 Ratings)

Excel's VARPA function stands for variance population arguments. It calculates the variance based on the entire population. The argument list is considered to be the entire population, so the variance must be calculated using VARPA if the arguments represent only a population sample. The following steps will show how to use Excel's VARPA function.

Flag Article

Instructions

Difficulty: Challenging

Step1

Learn the syntax for VARPA. It is: VARPA(value1,value2,…) where value1, value2,… are up to 30 values which comprise a population.

Step2

Study the valid argument types for the VARPA function. They may be any of the following types: names, numbers, logical values or text representations of numbers. Arguments that can't be translated into numbers or are error values will cause an error.

Step3

Names can be in the form of arrays or references that contain numbers. In this case, only values in that array or reference will be used. Empty cells and text values will be ignored.

Step4

Enter logical values and text representations of numbers directly into the argument list if desired. Use the VARP function instead of VARPA if you do not wish to include these values in a reference for the VARPA calculation. Logical values also can be references that are equivalent to TRUE or FALSE. Arguments containing TRUE evaluate as 1 and arguments containing FALSE or text evaluate as 0.

Step5

Calculate the VARPA as the sum of (value – AVERAGE(value1,value2,…))^2/n where value is each value in the population and n is the number of values in the population.