[%CFEngine_function_prototype(list)%]

Description: Return the variance of the numbers in list.

[This function can accept many types of data parameters.][Functions#collecting functions]

[%CFEngine_function_attributes(list)%]

Use the eval() function to easily get the standard deviation (square root of the variance).

This is not part of a full statistical package but a convenience function.

Example:

[%CFEngine_include_snippet(max-min-mean-variance.cf, #+begin_src cfengine3, .*end_src)%]

Output:

[%CFEngine_include_snippet(max-min-mean-variance.cf, #+begin_src\s+example_output\s, .end_src)%]

History: Was introduced in version 3.6.0 (2014). The [collecting function][Functions#collecting functions] behavior was added in 3.9.

See also: sort(), mean(), sum(), max(), min(), [about collecting functions][Functions#collecting functions], and data documentation.