SKEW function

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.

Remarks

• The arguments must be either numbers or column references that contain numbers.

• If a column reference argument contains text, logical values, or is empty , those values are ignored; however, arguments 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:

  

Example

D1	D2	D3	D4	D5	D6	D7	D8	D9	D10	Formula	Description (Result)
3	4	5	2	3	4	5	6	4	7	=SKEW([D1], [D2], [D3], [D4], [D5], [D6], [D7], [D8], [D9], [D10])	Skewness of a distribution of the data set (0.359543)