How to find trendline without graphing

Question

I have set of data in Excel for which I would like to find the trendline. Is there a way to find the trendline (linear and non-linear) from the raw data? Or do I have to graph the data and use the graph's trendline tool?

Solution

Say we have data in columns A and B like:

To do a linear trend we need a slope and intercept. In D2 enter:

=SLOPE(B2:B20,A2:A20)

and in E2 enter:

=INTERCEPT(B2:B20,A2:A20)

There are equally simple formulas to get the parameters of other non-linear fits such as higher order polynomials, etc.

Comments

[CharlieRB]

Welcome to Super User! Please tell us what you have researched and attempted to resolve this. Take a minute to read How to Ask to improve your question.

[techSultan]

I understand, but does no function exist to directly call upon Excel's trendline-finding capability?

[techSultan]

So I must do the Linear Algebra for higher order polynomials and exponentials myself in Excel. I can't just call a function polyFit([data range], order of poly). Thanks