Question: I need to know if a number compared to a set of numbers is outside of 1 stddev from the mean, etc..

Answer: 
The accepted answer by Jaime is great, except you need to divide by k-2 in the last line (you need to divide by "number\_of\_elements-1").
Better yet, start k at 0:

```
public static double StandardDeviation(List<double> valueList)
{
    double M = 0.0;
    double S = 0.0;
    int k = 0;
    foreach (double value in valueList) 
    {
        k++;
        double tmpM = M;
        M += (value - tmpM) / k;
        S += (value - tmpM) * (value - M);
    }
    return Math.Sqrt(S / (k-1));
}

```
The trouble with all the other answers is that they assume you have your
data in a big array. If your data is coming in on the fly, this would be
a better approach. This class works regardless of how or if you store your data. It also gives you the choice of the Waldorf method or the sum-of-squares method. Both methods work using a single pass.

```
public final class StatMeasure {
  private StatMeasure() {}

  public interface Stats1D {

    /** Add a value to the population */
    void addValue(double value);

    /** Get the mean of all the added values */
    double getMean();

    /** Get the standard deviation from a sample of the population. */
    double getStDevSample();

    /** Gets the standard deviation for the entire population. */
    double getStDevPopulation();
  }

  private static class WaldorfPopulation implements Stats1D {
    private double mean = 0.0;
    private double sSum = 0.0;
    private int count = 0;

    @Override
    public void addValue(double value) {
      double tmpMean = mean;
      double delta = value - tmpMean;
      mean += delta / ++count;
      sSum += delta * (value - mean);
    }

    @Override
    public double getMean() { return mean; }

    @Override
    public double getStDevSample() { return Math.sqrt(sSum / (count - 1)); }

    @Override
    public double getStDevPopulation() { return Math.sqrt(sSum / (count)); }
  }

  private static class StandardPopulation implements Stats1D {
    private double sum = 0.0;
    private double sumOfSquares = 0.0;
    private int count = 0;

    @Override
    public void addValue(double value) {
      sum += value;
      sumOfSquares += value * value;
      count++;
    }

    @Override
    public double getMean() { return sum / count; }

    @Override
    public double getStDevSample() {
      return (float) Math.sqrt((sumOfSquares - ((sum * sum) / count)) / (count - 1));
    }

    @Override
    public double getStDevPopulation() {
      return (float) Math.sqrt((sumOfSquares - ((sum * sum) / count)) / count);
    }
  }

  /**
   * Returns a way to measure a population of data using Waldorf's method.
   * This method is better if your population or values are so large that
   * the sum of x-squared may overflow. It's also probably faster if you
   * need to recalculate the mean and standard deviation continuously,
   * for example, if you are continually updating a graphic of the data as
   * it flows in.
   *
   * @return A Stats1D object that uses Waldorf's method.
   */
  public static Stats1D getWaldorfStats() { return new WaldorfPopulation(); }

  /**
   * Return a way to measure the population of data using the sum-of-squares
   * method. This is probably faster than Waldorf's method, but runs the
   * risk of data overflow.
   *
   * @return A Stats1D object that uses the sum-of-squares method
   */
  public static Stats1D getSumOfSquaresStats() { return new StandardPopulation(); }
}

```