SQL VAR Function

The SQL VAR Function is one of the SQL Aggregate Function, which is used to calculate the statistical Variance of total records (or rows) selected by the SQL SELECT Statement.

TIP: VAR Function will only work on Numeric Columns and it ignores Nulls.

SQL Var Function Formula

The mathematical formulas behind the VAR function to calculate the Statistical Variance in SQL Server 2014 is as shown below:

--Calculating the Mean or Average
Mean = Sum of each individual/Total number of items

--Calculating the Statistical Variance
Variance = ((OriginalValue – Mean)² + (OriginalValue – Mean)² +.... )/(Total number of items - 1)

SQL Var Function Syntax

The basic syntax of the VAR Function in SQL Server is as shown below:

SELECT VAR ([Column_Name])
FROM [Source]

In this article we will show you, How to write Var Function in SQL Server with example. For this, We are going to use the below shown data

SQL VAR Example

The SQL Server VAR simply returns the Variance of total number of records present in the specified column. For example, The following query will calculate the variance of total records present in the [Yearly Income] column from Customers table.

T-SQL CODE

-- Example for SQL Server VAR Function
SELECT VAR ([YearlyIncome]) AS [Variance Income]    
  
  FROM [Customer]

OUTPUT

SQL VAR with Group By Clause

In most cases we usually calculate the variance of a products belongs to particular category or color etc. In these situations we use SQL GROUP BY Clause to group the products by color or category and then use the Var Function to calculate the variance of products present in each group. Let us see the Example

T-SQL CODE

-- Example for SQL Server VAR Function
SELECT [Occupation]
       ,VAR ([YearlyIncome]) AS [Income Variance]    
  FROM [Customer]
  GROUP BY [Occupation]

Above SQL Query will find, the Customers associated with the particular Department and calculates their income variance

OUTPUT

ANALYSIS

It is too big to show the calculations for every thing so, We are taking Skilled Manual profession and show you the output.

--Calculating Mean
Mean = (60000 + 80000) / 2

Mean = 70000

--Calculating Variance
Variance = ( (60000 - 70000) + (80000 - 70000) ) / (2 -1)

Variance = 200000000

SQL VAR in Having Clause

When we are grouping the data, In some cases we usually check for the conditions against the aggregated data. In these situations we use SQL HAVING Clause along with Group By Statement. For example, The following query will group the Customers by their Occupation and then finds the Income variance of each individual group.

T-SQL CODE

-- Example for SQL Server VAR Function
SELECT [Occupation]
       ,VAR ([YearlyIncome]) AS [Income Variance]    
 FROM [Customer]
 GROUP BY [Occupation]
 HAVING VAR ([YearlyIncome]) > 0

Below lines of code will check whether the aggregated amount (Variance of Yearly income for each individual Group) is greater than 0 or not. If this is True then corresponding records will be displayed.

HAVING VAR ([YearlyIncome]) > 0

OUTPUT

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