>>> from math import sqrt >>> def sd(x): sd.sum += x sd.sum2 += x*x sd.n += 1.0 sum, sum2, n = sd.sum, sd.sum2, sd.n return sqrt(sum2/n - sum*sum/n/n) >>> sd.sum = sd.sum2 = sd.n = 0 >>> for value in (2,4,4,4,5,5,7,9): print (value, sd(value)) (2, 0.0) (4, 1.0) (4, 0.94280904158206258) (4, 0.8660254037844386) (5, 0.97979589711327075) (5, 1.0) (7, 1.3997084244475311) (9, 2.0) >>>