[header] How to calculate standard deviation in excel [title] Gather the reports that list the data you want to use in your excel spreadsheet. [title] Keep the data list to a single variable. [step] Standard deviation is generally used on a small sample of data that needs to be graphed or an entire population. 
[substeps] Excel has different formulas for figuring out the standard deviation of an entire population and the standard deviation of the sample of a population. Keep this in mind when you choose your formula later on.