#!/usr/bin/perl -w use strict; my @stddev; while( ){ my @fields = split ' ', $_; my $N = scalar(@fields); my $sum = 0; $sum += $_ for @fields; my $mean = $sum / $N; $sum = 0; $sum += ($_ - $mean)**2 for @fields; push @stddev, sqrt($sum/$N); } print map {"$_\n"} @stddev; __DATA__ 1.8 2.5 3.8 1.9 -3.5 -3.5 3.2 -3.9 4.2 4.5 2.8 -1.3 -0.9 -0.7 -0.4 -0.8 -3.5 -3.5 -1.6 -4.5