# variance() Function & Examples

Use the variance() statistics function in Calcul.io. Review its syntax, edit working examples, understand the result, and explore related math functions.

## variance

#### variance(a, b, c, ...)

#### variance(A)

#### variance(A, dimension)

#### variance(A, normalization)

#### variance(A, dimension, normalization)

Try it yourself:

```calculio
variance(2, 4, 6)
variance([2, 4, 6, 8])
variance([2, 4, 6, 8], "uncorrected")
variance([2, 4, 6, 8], "biased")
variance([1, 2, 3; 4, 5, 6])
```

[max](https://calcul.io/function/max/index.md)

[mean](https://calcul.io/function/mean/index.md)

[min](https://calcul.io/function/min/index.md)

[median](https://calcul.io/function/median/index.md)

[min](https://calcul.io/function/min/index.md)

[prod](https://calcul.io/function/prod/index.md)

[std](https://calcul.io/function/std/index.md)

[sum](https://calcul.io/function/sum/index.md)

---

## variance(): measure spread around a mean

**variance(values)** measures how far values spread around their average, using squared deviations. A low variance indicates tightly clustered values; a high variance indicates greater dispersion.

## Example

The values [4, 5, 6] have less variance than [1, 5, 9], although both have mean 5. Squaring prevents positive and negative deviations from cancelling.

## Related statistics

Use [mean()](https://calcul.io/function/mean/index.md) for the center, [std()](https://calcul.io/function/std/index.md) for square-root scale, [sum()](https://calcul.io/function/sum/index.md) for totals, and [quantileSeq()](https://calcul.io/function/quantileSeq/index.md) for distribution cutoffs. [size()](https://calcul.io/function/size/index.md) checks sample size.

## Caveat

Know whether your analysis requires population or sample variance, and validate missing or non-finite values before aggregation.

[All functions](https://calcul.io/functions/index.md)