Intergration in Excel

[DaveWW00]

Can somebody tell me if its possible to calculate integrals in excel?

I have a spreadsheet here at work that does the entire calculation set except for the step where we need to integrate. It would be nice to have excel calculate that step instead of us by hand.

 

[Damon Ostrander]

Hi DaveWW00,

Yes, it is possible to calculate integrals in Excel, but I do not believe there are any built-in functions to do it. You can do it by evaluating the function over the limits of integration as a worksheet table and summing the pieces and dividing by the dx using the trapezoidal rule for numerical integration or similiar higher-order methods.

It could also be accomplished via a user-defined function that would evaluate the function internally so that it wouldn't require worksheet space. The specifics of how to do this would depend on the nature of the functions you want to integrate (e.g., closed-form expressions, or tables of data), and the degree of flexibility you need (e.g., functions that never change vs functions that you are constantly modifying), etc.

Damon

 

[DaveWW00]

thanks!