The VARIANCE function returns a numeric value that approximates the variance of its arguments.
The function type is numeric.
Format .------------. V | >>-FUNCTION VARIANCE--(----argument-1-+--)---------------------><
The returned value is the approximation of the variance of the argument-1 series.
If the argument-1 series consists of only one value, or if the argument-1 series consists of all variable occurrence data items and the total number of occurrences for all of them is one, the returned value is zero.
(0)
( ((argument-11 - FUNCTION MEAN (argument-1)) ** 2 + (argument-12 - FUNCTION MEAN (argument-1)) ** 2) / 2)
( FUNCTION SUM ( ((argument-11 - FUNCTION MEAN (argument-1)) ** 2) ... ((argument-1n - FUNCTION MEAN (argument-1)) ** 2)) / n)