# Source code for simplestatistics.statistics.variance

# I need sane division that returns a float not int
from __future__ import division

from .mean import mean
from .decimalize import decimalize

[docs]def variance(data, sample = True):
"""
Variance_ is the sum of squared deviations from the mean. It is a general measurement of
how far from the mean the values are.

.. _Variance: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Variance

Args:
data: A list of numeric objects.
sample: A boolean value. If True, calculates sample variance. If False, calculates
population variance.

Returns:
A float object.

Examples:
>>> variance([1, 2, 3, 4])
1.6666666666666667
>>> variance([1, 2, 3, 4], sample = False)
1.25
>>> variance([1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6])
3.5
>>> variance([-2, -1, 0, 1, 2])
2.5
>>> variance([1]) # variance of one value is not defined
>>> variance([4]) # variance of one value is not defined
"""
if len(data) < 2:
return(None)

data = decimalize(data)
m = decimalize(mean(data))
if sample:
return(float(sum([pow(x - m, 2) for x in data]) / (len(data) - 1)))
else:
return(float(mean([pow(x - m, 2) for x in data])))