AVEDEV Function (Gnumeric)

=AVEDEV(A2:A9) calculates the mean absolute deviation from the arithmetic mean for the numeric observations in A2:A9. In ordinary terms: first find the average, determine how far every observation is from it without negative signs, then average those distances. A result of 1.5 days means the observed delivery times differ from their mean by 1.5 days on average in absolute terms; it does not mean their standard deviation is 1.5. Gnumeric’s 1.12.62 Statistics implementation names this statistic AVEDEV and registers it as a complete function with basic project tests. Version-specific source · Official catalogue

The result uses the same units as the input (days, dollars, kilograms). That is an advantage over squared deviations when reporting typical day-to-day variation, but it does not identify which side of the mean caused the deviations. Implementation definition

=AVEDEV(number1,number2,…)

Enter =AVEDEV(A2:A9) for a contiguous range, =AVEDEV(A2:A5,B2:B5) for separate areas, or =AVEDEV(2,4,4,4,5,5,7,9) for directly entered constants. The source help identifies the first argument as number1 and the next as number2; the implementation accepts a varying number of expression arguments. There is no mean, ignore_blanks, sample or population parameter. Version-specific 1.12.62 function help and definition

The formulas shown here use English function names, commas between arguments and periods for decimal points. Formula punctuation and displayed numeric formatting can vary with locale/installation; use the locally accepted separators and do not confuse a display-format change with a different underlying result. This research verifies the 1.12.62 release reference, not every language, platform or older Windows build. Release notes · Catalogue

Create this worksheet. Enter the values as numbers, not as text such as "2 days":

Enter =AVERAGE(A2:A9) in E2 (expected 5), and =AVEDEV(A2:A9) in E3 (expected 1.5). Copy B2 down through B9. Column B should calculate 3, 1, 1, 1, 0, 0, 2, 4 for these inputs. Enter =SUM(B2:B9)/COUNT(A2:A9) in E4: expected 1.5 again. All expected values are independent arithmetic checks, not native Gnumeric results observed in this run. Gnumeric AVERAGE, COUNT, SUM, AVEDEV catalogue entries · AVEDEV source semantics

The eight values sum to 40, so their mean is 5. Absolute distances sum to 12. Therefore AVEDEV = 12/8 = 1.5. By contrast, the sum of squared distances is 32, so =DEVSQ(A2:A9) is expected to return 32 and =STDEVP(A2:A9) is expected to return 2. Do not interchange these three dispersion measures: absolute deviation, squared-deviation sum and standard deviation answer different questions. Gnumeric functions catalogue · Release-matched source

Split input across nonadjacent ranges

If the same eight values occupy A2:A5 (2,4,4,4) and C2:C5 (5,5,7,9), use:

=AVEDEV(A2:A5,C2:C5)

Expected: 1.5, because the combined observations are unchanged. The function processes the values from both input areas; it does not average the separate areas’ AVEDEV results. Never compute the mean absolute deviations per area and then average those two values unless that is the deliberately chosen statistic (and even then the overall means differ). Argument help

Normalize absolute spread to the mean — carefully

=AVEDEV(A2:A9)/AVERAGE(A2:A9)

Expected: 0.3 (30%) for this positive-mean delivery-time dataset. This ratio is an independently derived analysis metric, not a separate Gnumeric AVEDEV feature. It may be useful for comparing variability across operations with different typical durations. If the arithmetic mean is zero or negative, a naive percentage can be undefined or misleading; examine the units and business meaning first. AVEDEV, AVERAGE source definitions

Detect sensitivity to extreme observations

Replace A9’s 9 with 20, leaving the other seven cells unchanged. Then the new arithmetic mean is 6.375 and the new mean absolute deviation is 3.5625. This illustrates that AVEDEV is not immune to outliers. For a business report, consider displaying the sample size and a robust companion metric such as the median, instead of presenting one dispersion number without context. These two expected values were calculated independently. Gnumeric AVEDEV and MEDIAN catalogue entries

Audit imported measurements

Before using a range for a delivery-time KPI, check that all meaningful observations really are numeric. =COUNT(A2:A9) counts the numeric inputs; =COUNTA(A2:A9) can highlight a difference when nonempty text labels are present. For a range containing nonnumeric cells, the 1.12.62 source explicitly requests ignoring range text, logical values and blank cells in the AVEDEV number collector. The exact handling of directly typed text/Boolean arguments uses additional release-specific collector flags and is not assumed identical to the behavior of text/Boolean cells. 1.12.62 implementation flags · Gnumeric catalogue

The function computes absolute deviations; it does not compute a median absolute deviation (MAD in some statistical literature), the mean deviation from the median, or the standard deviation. An AVEDEV of 0 means all counted numeric observations are identical; it does not prove that excluded text/blank cells contained matching values. 1.12.62 implementation

The scope of this manuscript is Gnumeric 1.12.62, released in September 2026. The Gnumeric project’s public catalogue labels avedev Complete and upstream testing Basic. These are implementation and test-suite classifications, not proof that this article’s worksheet was executed, that every locale uses the same formula separator, or that every older binary offers identical behavior. The release-matched function help carries an Excel-compatible marker, but no untested claim is made about Excel’s errors, direct argument coercion, imports or recalculation under other spreadsheet applications. Release · Official catalogue · 1.12.62 help

The project’s legacy Windows port should not be conflated with current Linux distribution packages. This article neither verifies a current Windows installation nor claims a platform-specific test. Check your installed software’s exact version and plug-ins when reproducing the example. Gnumeric release information

• AVERAGE — mean of numeric values
• DEVSQ — sum of squared deviations
• STDEV — sample standard deviation
• STDEVP — population standard deviation
• VAR — sample variance
• COUNT — numeric observation count
• MEDIAN — a more outlier-resistant measure of location

Sources checked 2026-10-13 (UTC): Official catalogue and release documentation were checked. Function help, implementation callbacks and collector flags were independently inspected in plugins/fn-stat/functions.c from the official Gnumeric 1.12.62 source archive, verified against GNOME’s published SHA-256 checksum. Source inspection is not a native application test.

Validation limits: Examples were checked by independent arithmetic and the checksum-verified official Gnumeric 1.12.62 source. No native Gnumeric execution, screenshots, locale regression or workbook round-trip was performed.