You can use VAR.P (if data or arguments are the entire population) or VAR.S (if data or arguments are a sample of the population) function including the cell range to estimate variance based on the input data. The syntax is written as VAR.S(number1,[number2],[number3]...) or VAR.P(number1,[number2],...). To calculate the variance of a range of cells (say A1 to A5) in Excel, enter the formula as =VAR.S(A1:A5).