Microsoft® Excel® 2010 Formulas & Functions Inside Out
by Helmut Reinke Egbert Jeschke Sara Unverhau, Eckehard Pfeifer, Bodo Fienitz, and Jens Bock
LINEST()
Syntax. LINEST(known_y’s,known_x’s,const,stats)
Definition. This function calculates the statistics for a line using the smallest squares to calculate a straight line appropriate for the data and then returns an array describing a line. Because this function returns an array of values, it must be entered as an array formula.
The equation for the line is:
y = mx + b
or, if there are multiple ranges of x-values:
y = m1x1 + m2x2 + ... + b
The dependent y-values are a function of the independent x-values. The m-values are coefficients corresponding to each x-value, and b is a constant value. Note that y, x, and m can be vectors. The array that the LINEST() function returns is {mn,mn-1,...,m1,b}. LINEST() can also return additional regression statistics ...
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