Accessing individual elements of an array returned by a function

[tkpmep]

If I call an Excel function (e.g. Linest) that returns an array (in
the case of Linest, the slope and the intercept), how can I access one
particular element of the array that is returned?

If I select two cells, type =Linest(a1:a10,b1:b10) in one and then hit
Ctl-Shift-Enter to enter an array formula, both the slope and the
intercept are returned, one in each cell. But what if I want just the
slope or just the intercept? I tried entering =Linest(a1:a10,b1:b10)
(1) in a single cell but got only an error. What am I doing wrong? I'm
aware that in this particular case, I could use the Slope() and
Intercept() functions separately to get what I want, but there has to
be a general solution for any function that returns an array.

Sincerely

Thomas Philips

 

[Alan Beban]

If I call an Excel function (e.g. Linest) that returns an array (in
the case of Linest, the slope and the intercept), how can I access one
particular element of the array that is returned?

If I select two cells, type =Linest(a1:a10,b1:b10) in one and then hit
Ctl-Shift-Enter to enter an array formula, both the slope and the
intercept are returned, one in each cell. But what if I want just the
slope or just the intercept? I tried entering =Linest(a1:a10,b1:b10)
(1) in a single cell but got only an error. What am I doing wrong? I'm
aware that in this particular case, I could use the Slope() and
Intercept() functions separately to get what I want, but there has to
be a general solution for any function that returns an array.

Sincerely

Thomas Philips

If the two cells you selected are in one column, you might try

=INDEX(Linest(A1:A10,B1:B10),1,1) for the slope,

=INDEX(Linest(A1:A10,B1:B10),2,1) for the intercept.

If the two selected cells were in one row, try

=INDEX(Linest(A1:A10,B1:B10),1,1) for the slope,

=INDEX(Linest(A1:A10,B1:B10),1,2) for the intercept.

Alan Beban