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Compatibility - COVAR Function
The COVAR function in Excel 2013 replaces the COVARIANCE.P function in Excel 2010.
Description
The function returns covariance, the average of the products of deviations for each data point pair in two data sets. Use covariance to determine the relationship between two data sets.
Syntax
COVAR (array1, array2)
Arguments
| Argument | Description | Required/Optional |
|---|---|---|
| Array1 | The first cell range of integers. | Required |
| Array2 | The second cell range of integers. | Required |
Notes
Covariance is given by −
$$Cov(X,Y) = \frac{\sum (x-\bar{x})(y-\bar{y})}{n}$$
Where are the sample means of AVERAGE (array1) and AVERAGE (array2), and n is the sample size.
The arguments must be either numbers, names, arrays, or references that contain numbers.
The values of an array or reference argument containing text, logical values, or empty cells 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 of the arrays, array1 or array2 is empty, COVAR returns the #DIV/0! error value.
Example
