How to standardize data in Excel

by Best Excel Tutorial Data Analysis

In this Excel tutorial you learn how to standardize data in Excel.

Standardizing data in Microsoft Excel involves converting the data values into standard scores, also known as z-scores. Standard scores represent how many standard deviations each data value is from the mean of the data set. The process of standardizing data is useful for comparing values from different data sets that have different units of measurement or different scales. Here’s how to standardize data in Excel:

  1. Open a new or existing Excel workbook.
  2. Select the data you want to standardize.
  3. Calculate the mean of the data set. You can do this by using the AVERAGE function in Excel. For example, if your data is in cells A2 to A11, you can calculate the mean by typing “=AVERAGE(A2:A11)” into a blank cell.
  4. Calculate the standard deviation of the data set. You can do this by using the STDEV function in Excel. For example, if your data is in cells A2 to A11, you can calculate the standard deviation by typing “=STDEV(A2:A11)” into a blank cell.
  5. Create a new column in the same worksheet to store the standardized data.
  6. In the first cell of the new column, calculate the standardized score for the first data value. You can do this by subtracting the mean from the data value and dividing the result by the standard deviation. For example, if the first data value is in cell A2 and the mean and standard deviation are in cells B1 and B2, respectively, you can calculate the standardized score by typing “=(A2-B1)/B2” into the first cell of the new column.
  7. Copy the formula down to the remaining cells in the new column to calculate the standardized scores for the rest of the data values.
  8. To format the standardized data values as z-scores, right-click the cells in the new column and select “Format Cells”.
  9. In the Format Cells dialog box, select the “Number” category and choose the “Number” format.
  10. In the “Decimal places” field, enter the number of decimal places you want to display for the z-scores.
  11. Click “OK” to apply the formatting to the cells.
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And that’s it! You have successfully standardized your data in Excel. You can now use the standardized data for further analysis, such as creating charts or comparing values from different data sets.

Note: To automate the process of standardizing data, you can create a custom function in Excel. This function can then be used to standardize data in other worksheets or workbooks. To create a custom function in Excel, you can use the VBA (Visual Basic for Applications) programming language. This is a more advanced topic and requires some knowledge of programming and the VBA language. If you’re not familiar with VBA, you can still standardize your data using the steps outlined above.

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