Standard deviation without outliers

[crozfader]

I'm trying to do the following


I have a series
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 96 24 120 120 1 120 240 258 240 278 423 77 3


I want to eliminate outliers and calculate a new mean and standard deviation.

Using the following I was able to calculate the new mean without the outlier (in this case there is only one outlier => 423)

=SUMPRODUCT((V3:AS3<CP3+1.5*CN3)*(V3:AS3>CO3-1.5*CN3)*(V3:AS3))/(24-CQ3)

Where V3:AS3 contains the range above, CN3 is the Inter-Quartile range, CP3 is the third quartile, and CO3 is the first quartile.

For some reason if I try the following array formula, it fails for distributions that contain outliers and works for distributions that don't have outliers...

{=STDEV(IF(OR(V2:AS2>CP2+1.5*CN2,V2:AS2<CO2-1.5*CN2),"",V2:AS2)) }

What I'm trying to do here is return V2:AS2 only if they fit within the ranges defined above, else return ""... I have used similar tricks for others applications without any problem. What am I doing wrong?


For this same distribution, if I just want to count the number of outliers I use:

{=+SUM(IF(OR(V2:AS2<CO2-1.5*CN2,V2:AS2>CP2+1.5*CN2),1,0))}

In this case, the outlier count is 1 (which is obviously the 423 observation)

Any ideas?

 

[pplstuff]

What exactly would you classify as an outlier? Is there a certain criteria that you're trying to throw out? If it's mentioned above, I'm missing it.

Also, make sure you have a logical reason for why you want to remove these data points (or in this case, data point).

 

[crozfader]

Q1 - first quartile of the distribution
Q3 - third quartile
IQR = Q3 - Q1

An observation is considered an outlier if Observation < Q1 - 1.5*IQR or Observation > Q3 + 1.5*IQR

 

[crozfader]

I've been trying to debug the problem... It seems that problem comes from the OR function...

 

[pplstuff]

Here's how I would do it (with an outlier being greater than 3 stdev from the mean):

Data A1:A16

1
2
3
5
2
3
3
4
5
6
7
8
3
2
1
80

<tbody>
</tbody>

=STDEV(IF(A1:A16>AVERAGE(A1:A16)+3*STDEV(A1:A16),"",A1:A16))
^^^Entered as an Array (ctrl+shift+enter)

The above only takes into accounts for data GREATER than 3*stdev from the sample mean. But judging from your formulas and knowledge above, I'm sure you can add in the other side.

Also, you can change the (>avg+3*stdev) to your quartile criteria. Hope this helps!

To add in the other side:
=stdev(if(observations>avg+3*stdev,"",if(observations<avg-3*stdev,"",observations)))
<avg-3*stdev,"",observations)))
^^array</avg-3*stdev,"",observations)))

 

[pplstuff]

I've been trying to debug the problem... It seems that problem comes from the OR function...

Or() will return a singular true or false, not an array. Use nested ifs to preserve the array.

 

[AhoyNC]

As per pplstuff you can not use OR or AND in an array.

If CN3 is your Inter-Quartile range try.

Excel Workbook
	V	W	X	Y	Z	AA	AB	AC	AD	AE	AF	AG	AH	AI	AJ	AK	AL	AM	AN	AO	AP	AQ	AR	AS
1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	96	24	120	120	1	120	240	258	240	278	423	77	3
2
3		StDEV	97.66633
Sheet

 

[crozfader]

Thanks pplstuff and AhoyNC!!! much appreciated.


Here's the solution I came up with, it is very sloppy but works:

=+STDEV(IF(ISERROR(IF(V3:AS3>CP3+3*CN3,"",V3:AS3)+ IF(V3:AS3<CO3-3*CN3,"",V3:AS3)),"",0.5*IF(V3:AS3>CP3+3*CN3,"",V3:AS3)+ 0.5*IF(V3:AS3<CO3-3*CN3,"",V3:AS3)))

I basically just add the two ranges and multiply by 0.5 because they each return V3:AS3...

Your solution works as well and is well more elegant...

The nested ifs in your formula acts as an "AND", is there a way to create "Or" through a similar trick (just curious)?

{=STDEV(IF($V$1:$AS$1>=$CN$3-(1.5*$CN$3),IF($V$1:$AS$1<=$CN$3+(1.5*$CN$3),V1:AS1)))}

Thank you very much

 

[crozfader]

oups here's my full formula

=+STDEV(IF(ISERROR(IF(V3:AS3>CR3+3*CP3,"",V3:AS3)+ IF(V3:AS3<CQ3-3*CP3,"",V3:AS3)),"",0.5*IF(V3:AS3>CR3+3*CP3,"",V3:AS3)+ 0.5*IF(V3:AS3<CQ3-3*CP3,"",V3:AS3)))

 

[barry houdini]

Sometimes when you use > and < here the board software interprets those as HTML tags and the formulas get corrupted, try leaving a space at the open end of < or > to counteract that......

In array formulas you can use * to simulate AND and + to simulate OR so for an "OR" version try

=STDEV(IF(($V$1:$AS$1>=$CN$3-1.5*$CN$3)+($V$1:$AS$1<=$CN$3+1.5*$CN$3),V1:AS1))