Great post. You looked into this yourself, you looked up the formulas, you just had a technical question. Your question was well written and clear. Boy, we need more posts on here like this! Answer from ExistingBathroom9742 on reddit.com
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Microsoft Support
support.microsoft.com › en-us › office › stdev-function-51fecaaa-231e-4bbb-9230-33650a72c9b0
STDEV function - Microsoft Support
Excel for Microsoft 365 Excel for Microsoft 365 for Mac Excel for the web Excel 2024 Excel 2024 for Mac Excel 2021 Excel 2021 for Mac Excel 2019 Excel 2016 Microsoft Office Microsoft365.com · Estimates standard deviation based on a sample.
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Reddit
reddit.com › r/excel › should i be using stdev.s or stdev.p?
r/excel on Reddit: Should I be using STDEV.S or STDEV.P?
August 13, 2024 -

I understand that the difference between the two is whether or not the full population is being used (P) or just a sample of the population (S).

However, if I'm looking at historical sales data, and I want to calculate the Standard Deviation of only the past 6 months, should I be using P or S?

None of the data for the last 6 months is missing, and I'll be using the full 6 months, which leads me to believe I should be using P. However, if I have say 20 years of sales data at my finger tips, but I'm only looking at the past 6 months, does that mean I should actually be using S?

I only actually care about the deviation in the previous 6 months. So I do believe P is correct, but wanted to confirm with the gurus.

Discussions

Calculate standard deviation within a certain range in excel - Stack Overflow
I first checked the answers this question: Is there a way to calculate standard deviation on a range of cells only for cells where the value is greater than 0 in Excel? I tried to use this info for a More on stackoverflow.com
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Why is my calculated standard deviation different from excel's? : excel
​ ![img](al1ax4d6l8fc1 "I've shown what I did to calculate the standard deviation. B26 is using Excel's STDEV function. What did I do... More on old.reddit.com
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Either my understanding of Standard Deviation is off or Excel is wrong here. : AskStatistics
I have a data set of 273 numbers. The average using the AVERAGE function in Excel is .299. When I use the STDEV.P I get 3.12 (STDEV.S gives the... More on old.reddit.com
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Geometric Standard Deviation in Excel?

If you don't mind using additional rows for the intermediate calcuations, you can do it this way: for D33:I33, calculate =LN(D33) through LN(I33). We'll say these are placed in D34:I34. From there, the geometric standard deviation is just =EXP(STDDEV(D34:I34)). You may be able to do this without the intermediate values by using arrays.

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People also ask

How do you calculate 2 standard deviations in Excel?
First, calculate the standard deviation using STDEV.S(range) or STDEV.P(range). Multiply this result by 2 to get two standard deviations. You can combine these steps in one formula like =2*STDEV.S(range).
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simplilearn.com
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How to Calculate Standard Deviation in Excel
What is the formula for STDEV s in Excel?
The formula in Excel for calculating the sample standard deviation is STDEV.S. You use it by entering =STDEV.S(range) in a cell, where "range" includes the cells with your data.
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simplilearn.com
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How to Calculate Standard Deviation in Excel
Do I use STDEV P or STDEV s?
Use STDEV.P if your data represents the entire population or you need the population standard deviation. Use STDEV.S if your data is a sample of a larger population and you want to calculate the sample standard deviation.
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simplilearn.com
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How to Calculate Standard Deviation in Excel
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DataCamp
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How to Calculate Standard Deviation in Excel | DataCamp
August 5, 2024 - For example, if your data is in cells B2 to B31, type =STDEV.P(B2:B31) to calculate the population standard deviation or =STDEV.S(B2:B31) for the sample standard deviation. Excel will automatically compute and display the standard deviation ...
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Macabacus
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Formula & Function: How to Calculate Standard Deviation in Excel
May 14, 2024 - The syntax for the standard deviation function is as follows: ... Number2: Enter any additional data points up to 255 here. ... Choose the function: Since we’re likely working with a sample of the overall student population, we’ll use STDEV.S. Enter the formula: Assuming scores are in cells B2:B6, the formula would be: =STDEV.S(B2:B6) Result: Excel performs standard deviation computation automatically.
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Microsoft Support
support.microsoft.com › en-us › office › stdev-p-function-6e917c05-31a0-496f-ade7-4f4e7462f285
STDEV.P function - Microsoft Support
Excel for Microsoft 365 Excel for Microsoft 365 for Mac Excel for the web Excel 2024 Excel 2024 for Mac Excel 2021 Excel 2021 for Mac Excel 2019 Excel 2016 · Calculates standard deviation based on the entire population given as arguments (ignores logical values and text).
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Ablebits
ablebits.com › ablebits blog › excel › excel functions › standard deviation excel: functions and formula examples
Standard deviation Excel: functions and formula examples
May 10, 2023 - To calculate standard deviation based on a sample, use one of the following formulas (all of them are based on the "n-1" method described above). STDEV(number1,[number2],…) is the oldest Excel function to estimates standard deviation based ...
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Simplilearn
simplilearn.com › home › resources › data science & business analytics › excel tutorial for beginners › master standard deviation in excel for accurate data analysis
How to Calculate Standard Deviation in Excel
July 31, 2025 - To calculate standard deviation in Excel, enter your data into a range of cells. Use either =STDEV.S(range) for a sample or =STDEV.P(range) for a population
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Hhmi
media.hhmi.org › biointeractive › vlabs › lizard2 › pdfs › How_to_Calculate_Stats_in_Excel.pdf pdf
How to Calculate Mean, Standard Deviation
8. Excel does not have a built-­‐in function for calculating SEM, so ... D20 is the cell with the standard deviation.
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Microsoft Learn
learn.microsoft.com › en-us › troubleshoot › microsoft-365-apps › excel › statistical-functions-differences
Differences between Excel statistical functions STDEVPA and STDEVP - Microsoft 365 Apps | Microsoft Learn
STDEVP and STDEVPA return population standard deviation, whereas STDEV and STDEVA return sample standard deviation. In all versions of Excel, a value is calculated first for VAR, VARA, VARP, or VARPA. The square root of this value is returned (respectively) for STDEV, STDEVA, STDEVP, or STDEVPA.
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Indeed
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How To Use Excel To Calculate Standard Deviation (With Example) | Indeed.com
You can calculate standard deviation by taking the square root of the variance for a dataset.This might be a time-consuming process to perform manually, but by using the built-in functions or formula feature in Microsoft Excel, you can perform it quickly and efficiently.
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Stack Overflow
stackoverflow.com › questions › 78309131 › calculate-standard-deviation-within-a-certain-range-in-excel
Calculate standard deviation within a certain range in excel - Stack Overflow
It worked thanks! @ThomasKimber, I have data points of Copy Number ratios (where ratio of 1 is CN=2 and ratio of 0.5 is CN=1) of DNA probes. I want to see within the "heterozygous deletion" range that we give to customers (0.40 - 0.65) what is the standard deviation of the each probe.
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W3Schools
w3schools.com › excel › excel_stdevp.php
Excel STDEV.P Function
The STDEV.P function is a premade function in Excel, which calculates the Standard Deviation (Std) for the entire population.
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Corporate Finance Institute
corporatefinanceinstitute.com › home › resources › stdev function
STDEV Function - Formula, Example, Sample, How to Use
December 7, 2023 - The STDEV Function[1] is categorized under Excel Statistical functions. The function will estimate the standard deviation based on a sample.
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CareerFoundry
careerfoundry.com › en › blog › data-analytics › standard-deviation-excel
Standard Deviation in Excel [Step-by-Step Tutorial]
August 20, 2021 - The STDEV function in Excel allows you to determine the standard deviation of a data sample. But what does this mean, and how does it work? Find out here.
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Microsoft Support
support.microsoft.com › en-us › office › stdev-s-function-7d69cf97-0c1f-4acf-be27-f3e83904cc23
STDEV.S function - Microsoft Support
Excel for Microsoft 365 Excel for Microsoft 365 for Mac Excel for the web Excel 2024 Excel 2024 for Mac Excel 2021 Excel 2021 for Mac Excel 2019 Excel 2016 · Estimates standard deviation based on a sample (ignores logical values and text in the sample).
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Storylane
storylane.io › tutorials › how-to-calculate-standard-deviation-in-microsoft-excel
How to Calculate Standard Deviation in Microsoft Excel: 1-Min Guide
Open the file in MS Excel and click on the cell where you’d like the answer to display. Type "=STDEV" and select the type of standard deviation you wish to use.
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YouTube
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Calculate Standard Deviation in Excel (30 Seconds) - YouTube
In this video, I will show you how to calculated SD in excel
Published   July 23, 2020
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Office Watch
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Standard Deviation made easy in Excel - Office Watch
August 29, 2025 - To calculate standard deviation based on a sample, that can be a cell range, array, table range etc.: =STDEV.S(<first cell in the range>:<last cell in the range>) (In Excel 2007 and before use STDEV() which is the same as STDEV.S() )
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Jotform
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How to calculate standard deviation in Excel | The Jotform Blog
If the average was 150, and the standard deviation is 2, that would mean that most people in the group were within the weight range of 150–2 or 150+2. ... When a formula is entered into a cell, it will also appear in Excel’s Formula bar.
Published   2 weeks ago