The standard deviation is a commonly used statistical measure that provides an insight into the variability or dispersion of a dataset. In this article we will show you how to calculate standard deviation with javascript for a given array consisting of numbers.
Let's get started.
Calculate Standard Deviation With Javascript
Before we write a code, we need to examine its formula. You can see the formula below for calculating the standard deviation of a dataset.
Formula: SD = √(Σ(x - μ)^2 / n)
Where:
- x is a data in array,
- μ is the mean,
- n is the length of the array,
- Σ is the sum of
When we want to calculate the standard deviation for a sample that is taken for entire data(population), the formula will undergo a minor modification, as follows: Formula: SD = √(Σ(x - μ)^2 / (n-1))
As you can see above, we need to utilize an array containing numbers, and the following JavaScript array methods will be applied to compute various portions of the formula.
- Math.sqrt => Square Root
- Math.pow => Square
- map => (x - μ)^2
- reduce => calculating mean and Σ((x - μ)^2)
And here is an example of javascript code snippet calculating the standard deviation of an array.
// A Dataset
const numbers = [2, 6, 7];
// Calculate mean
const mean = numbers.reduce((acc, curr) => acc + curr) / numbers.length;
// For the sample numbers.length - 1
const length = numbers.length;
const sd = Math.sqrt(
numbers
.map((number) => Math.pow(number - mean, 2))
.reduce((acc, curr) => acc + curr) / length
);
console.log(sd);
// 2.1602
Conclusion
To sum up, standart deviation is usefeul measure that indicate variability in a data set so we have shown how to calculate it with javascript using array reduce and map methods and math library.
Thank you for reading.