Standard Deviation types
I'm taking a basic Excel course, and struggling to comprehend the difference between STDEV.S and STDEV.P. I get that one draws the standard deviation from a sample of the population and the other uses the entire data set, but how representative is the sample of the whole group? Is there information somewhere about how large of a sample Excel chooses to use for STDEV.S, relative to the total number of values?
STDEV.S does not choose the sample. You choose the sample. By using STDEV.S you are telling Excel "The data I'm giving you is not the entire population, this is just a sample." The statistical method used to calculate standard deviation for an entire population is slightly different than for a sample.
It's been a while since I've studied statistics so I am not able to give you a deeper explanation at the moment but if you need to know more come on back and ask.
That is super helpful, thank you!
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