Syntax. STANDARDIZE(x,mean,standard_dev)

Definition. This function returns the standardized value of a distribution characterized by an average value and a standard variance.

Arguments

Background. In statistics, the standardization is the transformation of differently scaled number values in a consistent value range from 0 to 1 to compare distributed values.

The standard normal distribution is a type of continuous probability distribution. The special meaning of the normal distribution is based on the central limit theorem that states that a sum of n independent identical distributed random variables is normal distributed at the limit.

A standardized normal distribution has the mean 0 and the standard deviation 1. The STANDARDIZE() function returns the standardized value x of a normal distribution with a known mean and standard deviation. The equation for a standardized value is:

Example. You are a light bulb manufacturer and want to analyze the performance of light bulbs. You have already entered the measurements in an Excel table (see Figure 12-130).

Figure 12-130. The measurement results.

You have also calculated the average life cycle and the associated standard deviation, as shown in Figure 12-131.

Figure 12-131. Mean and standard deviation of the performance.

You use the STANDARDIZE() function to standardize all measured values. What arguments does this function require?

Figure 12-132 shows the results.

Figure 12-132. Calculating the standardized values with the STANDARDIZE() function.

Using the STANDARDIZE() function, you generated all standardized distribution values.