In Google Sheets, the CONFIDENCE function is used to calculate the confidence interval for a population mean, given a sample size and a standard deviation. The confidence interval provides a range within which the true population mean is likely to fall.

The syntax for the CONFIDENCE function is as follows:

CONFIDENCE(alpha, standarddeviation, samplesize)

alpha: This is the significance level used to determine the confidence level. It represents the probability of observing a sample mean within the confidence interval. Commonly used values are 0.05 (95% confidence) and 0.01 (99% confidence).

standard_deviation: This is the standard deviation of the population.

sample_size: This is the size of the sample used to estimate the population mean.

The CONFIDENCE function returns the margin of error, which is the range around the sample mean within which the true population mean is likely to be. The confidence interval can be calculated by adding and subtracting the margin of error from the sample mean.

It's important to note that the CONFIDENCE function assumes that the sample data is a simple random sample from a normally distributed population or a large enough sample size to satisfy the Central Limit Theorem.