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

Answer: 
**10 times faster** solution than Jaime's, but **be aware** that,
as Jaime pointed out:

> 
> "While the sum of squares algorithm works fine most of the time, it
> can cause big trouble if you are dealing with **very large** numbers. You
> basically may end up with a negative variance"
> 
> 
> 

If you think you are dealing with very large numbers or a very large quantity of numbers, you should calculate using both methods, if the results are equal, you know for sure that you can use "my" method for your case.

```
    public static double StandardDeviation(double[] data)
    {
        double stdDev = 0;
        double sumAll = 0;
        double sumAllQ = 0;

        //Sum of x and sum of x²
        for (int i = 0; i < data.Length; i++)
        {
            double x = data[i];
            sumAll += x;
            sumAllQ += x * x;
        }

        //Mean (not used here)
        //double mean = 0;
        //mean = sumAll / (double)data.Length;

        //Standard deviation
        stdDev = System.Math.Sqrt(
            (sumAllQ -
            (sumAll * sumAll) / data.Length) *
            (1.0d / (data.Length - 1))
            );

        return stdDev;
    }

```
```
/// <summary>
/// Calculates standard deviation, same as MATLAB std(X,0) function
/// <seealso cref="http://www.mathworks.co.uk/help/techdoc/ref/std.html"/>
/// </summary>
/// <param name="values">enumumerable data</param>
/// <returns>Standard deviation</returns>
public static double GetStandardDeviation(this IEnumerable<double> values)
{
    //validation
    if (values == null)
        throw new ArgumentNullException();

    int lenght = values.Count();

    //saves from devision by 0
    if (lenght == 0 || lenght == 1)
        return 0;

    double sum = 0.0, sum2 = 0.0;

    for (int i = 0; i < lenght; i++)
    {
        double item = values.ElementAt(i);
        sum += item;
        sum2 += item * item;
    }

    return Math.Sqrt((sum2 - sum * sum / lenght) / (lenght - 1));
}

```