Microsoft KB Archive/214117

= XL2000: Using Noncontiguous Ranges in Array Functions =

Article ID: 214117

Article Last Modified on 9/27/2003

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APPLIES TO


 * Microsoft Excel 2000 Standard Edition

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This article was previously published under Q214117





SUMMARY
Microsoft Excel functions that take arrays as arguments, such as LINEST, LOGEST, IRR, MIRR, MDETERM, NPV, RATE, and XIRR, cannot accept noncontiguous ranges of data as their array arguments. This article shows you how to work around this limitation. You must either copy the ranges to a contiguous area or enter the values as constants, as the following two workarounds describe.



MORE INFORMATION
The example below shows how to use these workarounds with the LINEST function.

Example
LINEST uses regression analysis to estimate a straight line to fit known data. Here the known_x's are in a noncontiguous range:   A1: X1          B1:     C1: X3       D1: Y1   A2: 2,310       B2:     C2: 20       D2: 142,000 A3: 2,333      B3:     C3: 12       D3: 144,000

Workaround 1
Copy the data so it is in a contiguous area of the worksheet and enter the data as a contiguous range reference. For example, copy the data in columns A and C into columns E and F and enter the following formula in cell A5 as an array (CTRL+SHIFT+ENTER):

=LINEST(D2:D3,E2:F3,,TRUE)

Workaround 2
Enter the data values into the function as array constants, rather than using a range reference. For example, enter the following formula in cell A5 as an array (CTRL+SHIFT+ENTER):

=LINEST(D2:D3,{2310,20;2333,12},,TRUE)

