Same Command..Different Result

[FLKulchar]

I have 2 IDENTICAL spreadsheets filled with statistical
and mathematical data; I input data into sheet 1...then
copy the data into sheet 2.

At the bottom of my spreadsheet appears the following
analytical data:

Total 16322 18097 23379 15111
Stdeva 77.17 92.37 95.58 69.98
Average 149.74 174.01 157.97 124.88


My total line consists of the =SUM formula;

My Standard deviation consists of =STDEVA

My average line consists of =average


Since ALL of my data from worksheet 1 is copy and pasted
to worksheet 2 (a different workbook (file)), you would
expect the totals in the above recaps to be identical.

BUT THEY ARE NOT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My total line is identical; and my average line is
identical.

BUT MY STANDARD DEVIATION LINE differs between the 2
workbooks, albeit my a scant amount...such as less than
0.10.

ALL ITEMS ARE FORMATTED THE SAME, so it is NOT a case of
rounding, etc.

Why is it that the formula, =stdeva, yields a different
result???

Can someone please explain???

thanks,

Larry

 

[JE McGimpsey]

It's nearly impossible to tell with the minimal description, but I'd
suspect that in one or both workbooks you have some "blank" cells that
contain text, perhaps spaces. Average and SUM will ignore text, but
STDEVA won't.

Is there a reason to use STDEVA(), which treats text as 0, rather than
STDEV(), which ignores text?