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Excel Intercept Function

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Intercept Equation
The Excel Slope Function uses the following equation to calculate the intercept of the linear regression line through a set of given points:
Equation for the intercept of a linear regression line
where the slope, b is given by the equation:
Equation for the slope of a linear regression line
and the values of   x   and   y   are the samples means (the averages) of the known_x's and the known_y's.

Basic Description

The Excel Intercept function calculates the intercept (the value at the intersection of the y axis) of the linear regression line through a supplied set of x- and y- values.

The syntax of the function is :

INTERCEPT( known_y's, known_x's )

Where the arguments are as follows :


known_y's - An array known y-values
known_x's -

An array of known x-values.

Note that the length of the known_x's array should be the same length as known_y's, and the variance of the known_x's must not be zero.

Intercept Function Example

The spreadsheet below shows an example of the Excel Intercept function used to calculate the point at which the linear regression line through the known_x's and known_y's (listed in cells F2:F7 and G2:G7) intersects the y-axis. These known_x's and known_y's are plotted on a chart in the spreadsheet.

Example of use of the Excel Intercept Function

The above example gives the result 2.4.


Further examples of the Excel Intercept function can be found on the Microsoft Office website

Intercept Function Errors

The most common errors from the Excel Intercept function are listed in the table below :

Common Errors
#N/A - Produced if the supplied known_x's and known_y's arrays are of different lengths.
#DIV/0! - Produced if the variance of the supplied known_x's evaluates to zero or if either of the supplied known_x's or known_y's arrays is empty