STDEVPA in Collabora Office: Population Spread with an Explicit Text-Zero Policy

• Introduced: original Collabora release and launch date are not established by the reviewed sources.
• Availability: currently documented in Collabora Office 26.04 desktop help.
• Platform scope: online and mobile deployments are not inferred from this desktop-help release.
• Checked: October 14, 2026. Function-specific documentation and independent calculations; no native Collabora execution.

=STDEVPA(argument1;[argument2];...)

The Collabora section documents up to 255 arguments made from numbers, text or references. A range counts as one argument. Ordinary nonnumeric text has the stated value zero; Boolean and numeric-text details are not established by this compact rule.

The independent calculation averages squared deviations over all participating encoded values, then takes the square root. Its denominator is n, unlike the n minus one sample interpretation of STDEVA.

Enter numeric 6, numeric 12 and text Pending in A2:A4:

=STDEVPA(A2:A4)

Expected result: 4.898979, displayed to six decimal places. Encoded values are 6,12,0, with mean 6. Squared deviations 0,36,36 total 72; population variance is 24.

For the numeric-only two-value population 6,12, the mean is 9 and population standard deviation is 3. Choosing an encoded text-zero observation therefore changes the population being described.

Replace Pending with numeric 9. The new values 6,12,9 have mean 9 and squared-deviation total 18:

=STDEVPA(A2:A4)

Expected result: 2.449490, from sqrt(18/3). Restoring the word Pending restores the initial encoded-zero calculation. The result changes because the underlying included value changes, not because of the displayed word length.

Restore Pending in A4 and put text Review in A5. For A2:A5 the encoded values become 6,12,0,0. Their mean is 4.5; squared deviations total 99.

Expected STDEVPA is 4.974937, from sqrt(99/4). A small change in the headline statistic can conceal a larger change in completion status: this population now contains two text entries rather than one.

Show the number of actual numeric readings separately when reporting such an encoded statistic. The function’s output alone does not disclose how many observations were statuses.

For the initial encoded values 6,12,0, population variance is 24 and standard deviation is sqrt(24). The related sample calculation has variance 36 and standard deviation 6, dividing the same squared-deviation total 72 by two.

The ratio of these standard deviations is sqrt(3/2), not 3/2. Confusing variance and standard deviation can create an apparent discrepancy even when both formulas follow their respective definitions.

=STDEVPA(6;12;0)
=STDEVPA(6;12;"Pending")

Both have independently expected 4.898979 results under the documented encoding. Keeping these short controls beside a complex report helps distinguish a type-policy issue from a range-selection error.

Text-as-zero does not prove that an empty reference, an empty text result or a failed formula has the same behavior. Singleton handling and exact error labels are also outside the documentation and native-test evidence used here.

STDEVP explicitly ignores range text in its own section, while STDEVA uses a sample interpretation. Choose the inclusion policy and population definition before comparing their numerical results.

• Collabora Office 26.04: STDEVPA.
• Editorial testing standards.

Complete function-specific documentation reviewed. Worked outputs are independent mathematical or explicitly documented type-rule controls, not application screenshots or native test results. The stated unresolved boundaries retain their scope.