SKEW

Microsoft Office Spreadsheet Functions

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SKEW

See Also

Returns the skewness of a distribution. Skewness characterizes the degree of asymmetry of a distribution around its mean. Positive skewness indicates a distribution with an asymmetric tail extending toward more positive values. Negative skewness indicates a distribution with an asymmetric tail extending toward more negative values.

Syntax

SKEW(number1,number2, ...)

Number1,number2...   are 1 to 30 arguments for which you want to calculate skewness. You can also use a single array or a reference to an array instead of arguments separated by commas.

Remarks

  • The arguments must be either numbers or names, arrays, or references that contain numbers.
  • If an array or reference argument contains text, logical values, or empty cells, those values are ignored; however, cells with the value zero are included.
  • If there are fewer than three data points, or the sample standard deviation is zero, SKEW returns the #DIV/0! error value.
  • The equation for skewness is defined as:

    Equation

Example

The example may be easier to understand if you copy it to a blank spreadsheet.

How?

Data
3
4
5
2
3
4
5
6
4
7
Formula Description (Result)
=SKEW(A2:A11) Skewness of a distribution of the data set above (0.359543)