FORECAST

Excel Functions

Predict value along a linear trend

Syntax

EXCEL

=FORECAST(x, known_ys, known_xs)

Arguments

Parameter	Description
`x`	The x value data point to use to calculate a prediction.
`known_ys`	The dependent array or range of data (y values).
`known_xs`	The independent array or range of data (x values).

Return Value

Predicted value

Details

The FORECAST function predicts a value based on existing values along a linear trend. FORECAST calculates future value predictions using linear regression, and can be used to predict numeric values like sales, inventory, test scores, expenses, measurements, etc. Note: Starting with Excel 2016, the FORECAST function was replaced with the FORECAST.LINEAR function. Microsoft recommends replacing FORECAST with FORECAST.LINEAR, since FORECAST will eventually be deprecated. In statistics, linear regression is an approach for modeling the relationship between a dependent variable (y values) and an independent variable (x values). FORECAST uses this approach to calculate a y value for a given x value based on existing x and y values. In other words, for a given value x, FORECAST returns a predicte

Examples

Example

In the example shown above, the formula in cell D13 is: