How to measure signal to noise (S/N) of a set of data in Excel?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Muk
  • Start date Start date
M

Muk

Hi,

I am dealing with sets of real data and as would be expected there are lots
of 'noise'. I would like to set a baseline so that calculations are
performed only on the data above the baseline. I know that the kurtosis
function shows how "peaked" the data is but I am looking for a data sieve
that ignores the random noise and accepts the real data (say anything five
times higher than random noise).

Thanks
 
My preference for this is to use Standard Deviation. At +/- 2 standard
deviations you will be excluding the 5% of the data that most significantly
varies from the mean. That removes the big anomolies but leaves the majority
of the data in pool.
 
A common way is to use an array* function with an IF statement, such as:

=SUM(IF(A2:A100>5,A2:A100))

This would then only SUM the numbers in A2:A100 that are > 5.

*Array functions are confirmed using Ctrl+Shift+Enter, not just Enter.
 
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