How to Use SUMSQ in Excel (With Example)

You can use the SUMSQ function in Excel to calculate the sum of squares for a given sample.

This function uses the following basic syntax:

=SUMSQ(value1, value2, value3, ...)

Here’s the formula that SUMSQ actually uses:

Sum of squares = Σx_i²

where:

• Σ: A fancy symbol that means “sum”
• x_i: The i^th data value

The following example shows how to use this function in practice.

Example: How to Use DEVSQ in Excel

Suppose we have the following dataset in Excel

We can use the following formula to calculated the sum of squares for this dataset:

=SUMSQ(A2:A13)

The following screenshot shows how to use this formula in practice:

The sum of squares turns out to be 1,402.

We can confirm this is correct by manually calculating the sum of squares for this dataset:

• Sum of squares = Σx_i²
• Sum of squares = 2² + 3² + 5² + 5² + 7² + 8² + 9² + 12² + 14² + 15² + 16² + 18²
• Sum of squares = 4 + 9 + 25 + 25 + 49 + 64 + 81 + 144 + 196 + 225 + 256 + 324
• Sum of squares = 1,402

The sum of squares turns out to be 1,402.

This matches the value that we calculated using the SUMSQ function.

Additional Resources

The following tutorials explain how to perform other common operations in Excel:

How to Use DEVSQ in Excel
How to Calculate SST, SSR, and SSE in Excel
How to Use SUMIF From Another Sheet in Excel