COVAR
Updated: 30 September 2010
Note: This documentation is for the SQL2008 (and later) version of this XLeratorDB function, it is not compatible with SQL Server 2005.
Click here for the SQL2005 version of the COVAR function
Use the multi-input aggregate COVAR function to calculate the average of the products of the deviations for each data point pair. The equation for covariance is
Syntax
SELECT [wctStatistics].[wct].[SLOPE] (
,<@Known_y, float,>
,<@Known_x, float,>)
Arguments
@Known_y
the y-values to be used in the COVAR calculation. @Known_y is an expression of type float or of a type that can be implicitly converted to float.
@Known_x
the x-values to be used in the COVAR calculation. @Known_x is an expression of type float or of a type that can be implicitly converted to float.
Return Types
float
Remarks
· COVAR is an AGGREGATE function and follows the same conventions as all other AGGREGATE functions in SQL Server.
Examples
In this example, we calculate the covariance for a single set of x- and y-values
SELECT wct.COVAR(y, x) as COVAR
FROM (
SELECT 0.75, 1 UNION ALL
SELECT 2.5, 2 UNION ALL
SELECT 6.75, 3 UNION ALL
SELECT 10, 4
) n(x,y)
This produces the following result
COVAR
----------------------
4
(1 row(s) affected)
In this example, we will populate some temporary table with some historical financial information and then calculate the covariance. First, create the table and put some data in it:
CREATE TABLE #c(
SYM NVARCHAR(5),
YE BIGINT,
REV FLOAT,
GPROF FLOAT,
OPINC FLOAT,
NETINC FLOAT
)
INSERT INTO #c VALUES('YHOO',2009,6460.32,3588.57,386.69,597.99)
INSERT INTO #c VALUES('YHOO',20,72.5,4185.14,12.96,418.92)
INSERT INTO #c VALUES('YHOO',2007,6969.27,4130.52,695.41,639.16)
INSERT INTO #c VALUES('YHOO',2006,6425.68,3749.96,940.97,751.39)
INSERT INTO #c VALUES('YHOO',2005,5257.67,3161.47,1107.73,1896.23)
INSERT INTO #c VALUES('GOOG',2009,23650.56,14806.45,8312.19,6520.45)
INSERT INTO #c VALUES('GOOG',20,21795.55,13174.04,5537.21,4226.86)
INSERT INTO #c VALUES('GOOG',2007,16593.99,9944.9,54.44,4203.72)
INSERT INTO #c VALUES('GOOG',2006,10604.92,6379.89,3550,3077.45)
INSERT INTO #c VALUES('GOOG',2005,6138.56,3561.47,2017.28,1465.4)
INSERT INTO #c VALUES('MSFT',2010,62484,509,24167,18760)
INSERT INTO #c VALUES('MSFT',2009,58437,46282,21225,14569)
INSERT INTO #c VALUES('MSFT',20,60420,48822,22271,17681)
INSERT INTO #c VALUES('MSFT',2007,51122,40429,18438,14065)
INSERT INTO #c VALUES('MSFT',2006,44282,36632,16064,12599)
INSERT INTO #c VALUES('ORCL',2010,26820,21056,9062,6135)
INSERT INTO #c VALUES('ORCL',2009,23252,18458,8321,5593)
INSERT INTO #c VALUES('ORCL',20,22430,17449,7844,5521)
INSERT INTO #c VALUES('ORCL',2007,17996,13805,5974,4274)
INSERT INTO #c VALUES('ORCL',2006,14380,11145,4736,3381)
INSERT INTO #c VALUES('SAP',2009,10672,6980,2588,1748)
INSERT INTO #c VALUES('SAP',20,11575,7370,2701,1847)
INSERT INTO #c VALUES('SAP',2007,10256,6631,2698,1906)
INSERT INTO #c VALUES('SAP',2006,9393,6064,2578,1871)
INSERT INTO #c VALUES('SAP',2005,8509,5460,2337,1496)
Now, calculate the covariance of the revenue (REV) againt the year (YE) for each company (SYM)
SELECT #c.SYM
,wct.COVAR(REV,YE) as COVAR
FROM #c
GROUP BY SYM
This produces the following result.
SYM COVAR
----- ----------------------
GOOG 9242.92600000381
MSFT 8743.8
ORCL 6027.2
SAP 1301.6
YHOO 637.62399999857
(5 row(s) affected)
In this example, we will calculate the correlation of the operating income (OPINC) against the revenue (REV)
SELECT #c.SYM
,wct.COVAR(OPINC,REV) as COVAR
FROM #c
GROUP BY SYM
This produces the following result.
SYM COVAR
----- ----------------------
GOOG 13123820.610476
MSFT 19038574.4
ORCL 6855059.76
SAP 117904.8
YHOO -202731.158536
(5 row(s) affected)
Let’s say we wanted to perform the same analysis as above, but we only want to return the results where the covariance is negative.
SELECT #c.SYM
,wct.COVAR(OPINC,REV) as COVAR
FROM #c
GROUP BY SYM
HAVING wct.COVAR(OPINC,REV) < 0
This produces the following result.
SYM COVAR
----- ----------------------
YHOO -202731.158536
(1 row(s) affected)