STANDARDIZE in WPS Spreadsheet: Express a Value in Standard-Deviation Units

=STANDARDIZE(x,mean,standard_dev)

All three arguments are supplied in these examples. mean is the arithmetic mean used as the reference centre. standard_dev is the positive standard deviation used as the reference scale. The function does not estimate either parameter from a dataset and does not choose between sample and population estimators for you.

Use the same measurement units for x, mean and standard deviation. Their ratio is dimensionless. Passing a variance in place of a standard deviation would divide by squared units and produce the wrong standardized value.

Put Value, Mean, Standard deviation and Standardized value in A1:D1. Enter:

Enter the inputs as numbers. Start with D2 and copy down after filling all three input columns. Row 3 lies one standard deviation below the reference mean; row 5 lies half a standard deviation above it.

The independent arithmetic is transparent: subtract 50 first, then divide by 8. Parentheses matter if you reproduce the calculation with ordinary arithmetic. 74-50/8 would not represent the same formula.

Suppose one recorded value is 74 against mean 50 and standard deviation 8, giving 3. A second measurement is 115 against mean 100 and standard deviation 5, also giving 3. The raw values and units may differ, but each is three of its own reference standard deviations above its own mean.

That equivalence is about standardized distance. It does not make the underlying distributions identical or establish that the measurements have equal tail probabilities. A skewed and a symmetric distribution can have the same standardized value but different tail areas.

To reconstruct a raw value from its standardized score, use mean + score × standard deviation. The first example gives 50 + 3×8 = 74. This reverse arithmetic is useful for checking that the reference scale was applied consistently.

The lesson explicitly documents #NUM! for standard_dev ≤ 0. Thus =STANDARDIZE(74,50,0) and =STANDARDIZE(74,50,-8) are documentation-based error expectations. Do not replace a genuine zero standard deviation with an arbitrary positive number merely to force a result.

The guide uses finite numeric inputs only. The lesson does not establish all text, blank, Boolean and error-propagation rules, so no additional exact error tokens are asserted here.

The source’s “normalization” language should not be read as a normality guarantee. Subtracting a mean and dividing by a positive standard deviation shifts and rescales data; it does not remove skewness or turn an arbitrary distribution into a normal one. STANDARDIZE returns a signed score, not a CDF, p-value or hypothesis-test decision. Keep that distinction in column headings and reports.

The official WPS Academy STANDARDIZE lesson, published 2019-06-24, was rechecked on October 19, 2026. The lesson explicitly labels WPS Office for Windows Personal. The publication date is evidence that the function was documented by that date, not its introduction date. Exact numeric builds, first and last supported versions remain unknown. The lesson does not establish retirement or deprecation, or parity across platforms and editions.

These are original documentation-based examples with independently calculated expected values. They were not executed in WPS. Vendor demonstrations are historical documentation, not our application tests. Application input handling and workbook interchange remain unverified. English function names and comma separators follow the lesson.

• AVERAGE: compute a reference arithmetic mean when appropriate.
• STDEV: estimate sample standard deviation under its documented contract.
• SQRT: take a square root when converting a justified variance to a standard deviation.