Microsoft Excel is one of those indispensable tools on any computer to easily create very complete and efficient spreadsheets. And the above is due to something that started as simple as a program that displayed a spreadsheet and was made up of many formulas .
In addition, thanks to its modernization, it has been equipped with various functions that today operate in various professional fields . How to calculate loan payments , which make it easy to manage data within the spreadsheet.
However, something that happens even to many experienced in this program is to establish the difference between the variants of the Excel function STDEV , we are talking about the STDEV.P and STDEV.M function. That’s why here we are going to explain more about these functions.
What is the Excel function DESVET?
For those people who perform operations related to statistics, they should be very well related to Excel’s DESVET function . Since it calculates the standard deviation of what is known in statistics as a sample or population.
The standard deviation is what is known as the measure of the dispersion of the values with respect to the mean; this last concept being an average value. This calculation is very much, especially in basic statistics, because it allows us to know more accurately how well distributed the data is.
However, this function alone has been replaced by new functions that provide greater precision. It is still available for most older versions of Excel, but in future versions it may no longer be available.
Differences between the Excel function STDEV.P and STDEV.M
Both STDEV.P and STDEV.M start from the idea of being used as functions that allow to calculate the standard deviation in a set of data from a statistical operation. But its use in Excel many times cannot be clear and tends to confuse people.
The DESVET.M function is normally used in those scenarios where the statistical operation only takes into account a part of the data that belongs to a larger set.
For example, if you are doing a study about the age of students in a college; and only a part of the students were taken, the ideal is to calculate the dispersion of values with DESVET.M.
This is the case since not all values are being taken into account (in this case the ages of all students at the school). Since the formula of this function has as denominator (n-1).
The DEVET.P function is used in statistical operations where all the data of a population are available. Continuing with the previous example, if the person who carried out the study of the ages of the students of a school had all the data (the age of each student); the aforementioned function DESVET.P is the most correct for this scenario.
In the case of the DEVET.P function, in its formula the denominator is composed as simply (n); which generates a more accurate precision when you have all the values . However, it is one of the least used functions since in practice it is very difficult to obtain all the data from a population without some margin of error.
Excel function STDEV.P and STDEV.M
In conclusion, the STDEV.P and STDEV.M functions are very basic tools for those who perform statistical operations in Excel. Its use, as explained, varies in many scenarios, so it is left to the person who is carrying out the study of dispersion of values.
