The following article introduces you to the COVARIANCE.S function - one of the functions in the statistical function group is very popular in Excel.
Description: Returns the sample covariance, the product of the deviations for each pair of data points in the two data sets
Syntax: COVARIANCE.S (array1, array2)
Inside:
- array1: The first range contains integers that want to calculate the variance, is a required parameter.
- array2: The second range contains the integers that want to calculate the variance, is a required parameter.
Attention:
- The argument must be either a number or a reference array that contains numbers.
- If the reference argument or array contains text or logical values or empty cells will be ignored.
- If array1 and array2 have different data points -> the function returns the # N / A error value
- If 1 of the 2 arrays is empty -> the function returns the # DIV / 0 error value
For example:
Calculate the sample covariance, the average of the product of deviations of each data point pair of the two data sets in the following table:
- In the cell to calculate enter the formula : = COVARIANCE.S (B6: B10, C6: C10)
- Press Enter -> covariance sample, the average of the product of deviations of each data point pair of two data sets is:
- Where the number of pairs of points of 2 arrays is not the same -> the function returns the # N / A error value
Here array2 only contains 3 values from C6: C8
Above are instructions and some specific examples when using the COVARIANCE.S function in Excel.
Good luck!