How to Use Excel's AveDev Function

By eHow Computers Editor

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Excel's AVEDEV function calculates the average of the absolute deviations of the specified values from their arithmetic mean. However, in statistics, the average of the absolute deviations may use any measure of central tendency to determine a data set's variability. The following steps will show how to use Excel's AVEDEV function.

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Instructions

Difficulty: Moderate

Step1

Learn the syntax of AVEDEV. It is (number_1,number_2,…,number_n) where number_1,number_2,…,number_n are 1 to 30 arguments for which the average of the absolute deviations using the arithmetic mean will be determined.

Step2

Study the valid arguments for AVEDEV. They must be names, numbers or arrays and references that contain numbers. Logical values and text representations of numbers that are entered directly into the argument list also will be included. FALSE is implicitly converted to 0 and TRUE is implicitly converted to 1.

Step3

Examine the way AVEDEV uses arguments that are arrays or references to arrays. Empty cells, logical values and text will be ignored. Cells with the value zero will be included, however.

Step4

Determine the result for AVEDEV. It is determined by first calculating the arithmetic mean m where m = t/n such that t is the population total and n is the population size. The average deviation is then given by the sum of |x-m|/n for all members x of the population.

Step5

Look at simple example of AVEDEV.

=AVEDEV(4,5,6,7,5,4,3) returns 1.020408. The arithmetic mean m is (4+5+6+7+5+4+3)/7 = 34/7 = 4.857143, so the average deviation is (|4-m|+|5-m|+|6-m|+|7-m|+|5-m|+|4-m|+|3-m|)/7 = 7.142857/7 = 1.020408.