Apple numbers User Manual

    Dictionary of Functions 

 

If the values you are analyzing are only a sample of a larger population, you might 
want to use the STDEV function instead.

Cells that don’t contain numbers are ignored. If you want to include text or Boolean 
values in the computation, use the STDEVPA function.

  

The STDEVPA function calculates the standard deviation of a set of values, including 
text and Boolean values, based on the population (true) variance.

STDEVPA(value, [value, . . .])

 value:  One or more numeric or Boolean values or references to cells containing 

numeric, textual, or Boolean values.

Notes
Unlike the STDEVP function, which ignores cells that don’t contain numbers, STDEVPA 
assigns a value of 0 to any text value, 0 to the Boolean value FALSE, and 1 to the 
Boolean value TRUE and includes them in the computation.

Entering text directly results in an error. Referencing a cell containing text is evaluated 
as 0. Boolean values can be entered directly or as cell references.

If the values you are analyzing are only a sample of a larger population, you might 
want to use the STDEVA function instead.

  

STDEVP(5, 5, 5, 5, 6) returns a standard deviation of 0.4 based on an average of 5.2.

STDEVP(1, 2, 3, 4, 5) returns a standard deviation of 1.41 based on an average of 3.

STDEVP(1, 1, 1, 1, 6) returns a standard deviation of 2 based on an average of 2.

STDEVP(2, 2, 4, 6, 6) returns a standard deviation of 1.79 based on an average of 4. Compare with 
STDEV(2, 2, 4, 6, 6), which uses the sample (unbiased) variance to return a standard deviation of 2.

STDEVPA(TRUE, TRUE, TRUE, TRUE, 6) returns 2. Each TRUE value is counted as a 1.

STDEVPA("a", 3, 6, 3, "b") displays an error.