Type
Statistical Operator

Purpose
The std.err. operator calculates the standard error (the standard deviation divided by the square root of the number of items) in a set of data. The result usually appears as a statistic in the summary area at the end of a report.

Syntax
FIELDNAME|VARIABLE : std.err.
[other statistical operators] ; | .

Returns
A numeric value.

Usage
Standard error indicates the variability in a subset of data; if the standard error of the mean of two data sets overlap, the subsets may be considered to be members of the same data set.
The std.err. operator can also be used when creating a report using Query by Model. To generate the standard error in Query by Model, highlight the column whose standard error you want to calculate, then select std.err. in the Summarize pick list.

Example
for MEMBERS with TOTAL DUE > 175 ;
list records
LAST NAME in order ;
TOTAL DUE : item sum std.dev. std.err. .
end

This script tells DataEase: (1) Process all the MEMBERS records that have a value greater than $175 in the TOTAL DUE field, (2) list the members by LAST NAME in alphabetical order, and (3) list each member's TOTAL DUE and include the standard deviation, standard error, and the sum of all the TOTAL DUE amounts in the procedure output. The output from this script might look as follows:

Last Name
Total Due
Christino
$280.00
Perrault
$215.00
Stafford
$185.00
Strachan
$205.00
Sum Total Due:
$885.00
Std.Dev. in data set:
$41.10
Std. Err. in data set:
$20.55