Excel AVEDEV Function

What is AVEDEV function in Excel?

The AVEDEV function is one of the Statistical functions of Excel.

It Returns the average of the absolute deviations of data points from their mean.

Arguments can be numbers or names, arrays, or references that contain numbers.

We can find this function in Statistical category of insert function Tab.

How to use AVEDEV function in excel

1. Click on an empty cell (like F5).

2. Click on the fx icon (or press shift+F3).

3. In the insert function tab you will see all functions.

4. Select STATISTICAL category.

5. Select AVEDEV function.

6. Then select ok.

7. In the function arguments Tab you will see AVEDEV function.

8. Number1: number1,number2,… are 1 to 255 arguments for which you want the average of the absolute deviations.

9. You will see the results in the formula result section.

Examples of AVEDEV function in Excel

example1:

How to calculate the average of absolute deviations in Excel?

The process for finding the mean absolute deviation involves the following steps.

1.get numbers.

numbers=23,30,31,15,46

2. calculate sum of numbers.

=SUM(23,30,31,15,46) ----->>>>answer is  145

3. calculate count of numbers.

=COUNT(23,30,31,15,46) ----->>>>answer is  5

4. calculate average of numbers.

=AVERAGE(23,30,31,15,46) ----->>>>answer is  29

5. calculate deviation from average numbers.

=ABS(23-29) ----->>>>answer is  6
=ABS(30-29) ----->>>>answer is  1
=ABS(31-29) ----->>>>answer is  2
=ABS(15-29) ----->>>>answer is  14
=ABS(46-29) ----->>>>answer is  17

6. calculate sum of deviations.

=SUM(6,1,2,14,17) ----->>>>answer is  40

7. calculate the average of absolute deviations.

=SUM(6,1,2,14,17)/COUNT(23,30,31,15,46) ----->>>>answer is  8

All these steps are summarized in the following function.

=AVEDEV (23,30,31,15,46) ----->>>>answer is  8

What is the purpose of AVEDEV function?

Calculating the absolute deviation is a crucial step for determining what the average deviation is. The absolute deviation is the difference between a data set’s mean and each value in the respective data set.

What is the Return value  of AVEDEV function?

It returns a positive number.

AVEDEV (numbers)= number

How many arguments does AVEDEV function have?

The argument of AVEDEV function is number.

This function has just 1 Argument.

The argument of AVEDEV function is required and not optional.

AVEDEV(+-number) = +number

Which version of excel supports AVEDEV function?

This function is available for all excel versions (2003-2019)

Errors in AVEDEV function

If you enter a non-numeric number, the output show #VALUE! or #NAME? error

AVEDEV(a) ----->>>>answer is   #NAME?

AVEDEV("a") ----->>>>answer is  #VALUE!

AVEDEV related functions 

• Use AVERAGE function to return the average of its arguments, which can be numbers or names, arrays, or references.
• STDEV function
• DEVSQ function