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LINEST Limit

Hey guys,
I have a LINEST question. Is there a limit to the number of known x's I can put into LINEST?

I've hit #REF! errors when using 17 plus an intercept (or more). It worked for 15 plus an intercept (I don't have a case with 16 plus int.)

I remember something about a limit in Excel 2003 but I wasn't sure for 2007. Anyone know for sure?

ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION

Patrick Matthews

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Patrick Matthews

BTW, I *strongly* discourage using Excel for regression analysis for anything that is remotely important:

1) LINEST (and yes, the Analysis ToolPak uses LINEST for its regression calculations) will occasionally return incorrect results, such as the mathematically-impossible negative r-squared

2) Excel does not test for true independence amongst the supposed independent variables

For any statistical analysis that really matters, I use the (pricey but excellent) Minitab.

RogueStat

ASKER

Thanks Matthew, I appreciate it.

I'm going to use something more robust like Minitab for the "real" analysis. It's going to have a lot more data, so Excel would probably bog down even if it didn't produce some head-scratching errors.

Right now I'm just quickly demonstrating a concept. Isn't all of the regression based off of Solver in Excel or did I just decide they were the same thing?

RogueStat

ASKER

You confirmed my suspicion, thank you!

byundt

Solver is an independent product licensed by Microsoft for inclusion in Excel. A newer version has been licensed for Excel 2010. Neither the old nor the new version is used for regression analysis.

Brad