Excel COVAR Function
The COVAR function returns the covariance, the average of the products of deviations of two sets of values.
Syntax
=COVAR(array1, array2)
Arguments
- array1 (required): The first range of numbers.
- array2 (required): The second range of numbers.
Return Value
The COVAR function returns a numeric value.
Function Notes
- array1 and array2 must be numbers, or names, arrays or references that contain numbers.
- array1 and array2 must be equal in length. Otherwise, COVAR function returns #N/A error value.
- If array1 or array2 contains text(s) or logical values or empty cells, COVAR function will ignore them.
Example
To calculate the covariance for each data point of the two arrays as shown in the table below, please copy or enter the below formula in the result cell (E6), and press Enter to get the result.
=COVAR(B6:B12,C6:C12)
Related functions
The Excel COVARIANCE.P function returns the population variance of two data sets which is used to determine the relationship between two data sets.
The Excel COVARIANCE.S function returns the sample variance of two data sets.
The CORREL function returns the correlation coefficient of two cell ranges, which can be used to determine the relationship between two properties.
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