COVAR

See Also

Returns covariance, the average of the products of deviations for each data point pair. Use covariance to determine the relationship between two data sets. For example, you can examine whether greater income accompanies greater levels of education.

Syntax

COVAR(array1,array2)

Array1 is the first cell range of integers.

Array2 is the second cell range of integers.

Remarks

The arguments must be either numbers or names, arrays, or references that contain numbers.
If an array or reference argument contains text, logical values, or empty cells, those values are ignored; however, cells with the value zero are included.
If array1 and array2 have different numbers of data points, COVAR returns the #N/A error value.
If either array1 or array2 is empty, COVAR returns the #DIV/0! error value.
The covariance is:

Example

The example may be easier to understand if you copy it to a blank spreadsheet.

How?

Create a blank spreadsheet.
Select the example in the Help topic.

Selecting an example from Help
Press CTRL+C.
In the spreadsheet, select cell A1, and press CTRL+V.
To switch between viewing the formula that returns the result and the result in the cell, select the cell and press F2 and then ENTER, or click Commands and Options on the spreadsheet toolbar, click the Formula tab, and look in the Formula in active cell (active cell) box.

Data1	Data2
3	9
2	7
4	12
5	15
6	17
Formula	Description (Result)
=COVAR(A2:A6, B2:B6)	Covariance, the average of the products of deviations for each data point pair above (5.2)