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7.7.6 Statistical Functions

Statistical functions compute descriptive statistics on a list of values. Some statistics can be computed on numeric or string values; other can only be computed on numeric values. Their results have the same type as their arguments. The current case’s weighting factor (see WEIGHT) has no effect on statistical functions.

These functions’ argument lists may include entire ranges of variables using the var1 TO var2 syntax.

Unlike most functions, statistical functions can return non-missing values even when some of their arguments are missing. Most statistical functions, by default, require only 1 non-missing value to have a non-missing return, but CFVAR, SD, and VARIANCE require 2. These defaults can be increased (but not decreased) by appending a dot and the minimum number of valid arguments to the function name. For example, MEAN.3(X, Y, Z) would only return non-missing if all of ‘X’, ‘Y’, and ‘Z’ were valid.

Function: CFVAR (number, number[, …]) ¶

Results in the coefficient of variation of the values of number. (The coefficient of variation is the standard deviation divided by the mean.)

Function: MAX (value, value[, …]) ¶

Results in the value of the greatest value. The values may be numeric or string.

Function: MEAN (number, number[, …]) ¶

Results in the mean of the values of number.

Function: MEDIAN (number, number[, …]) ¶

Results in the median of the values of number. Given an even number of nonmissing arguments, yields the mean of the two middle values.

Function: MIN (number, number[, …]) ¶

Results in the value of the least value. The values may be numeric or string.

Function: SD (number, number[, …]) ¶

Results in the standard deviation of the values of number.

Function: SUM (number, number[, …]) ¶

Results in the sum of the values of number.

Function: VARIANCE (number, number[, …]) ¶

Results in the variance of the values of number.