Interpolate / Extrapolate in Visual Basic .NET

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I'm new to Visual Basic 2010 and I've done lots of searching but am really stuck at one point. I thought I'd ask here to see if some kind soul could point me in the right direction!

I have an array of X,Y values where all X are known but only some Y are known. The Y values represent points on straight line segments and I want to be able to fill in the Y gaps. Linear interpolation between the defined Y values looks like it should work and I also want this to linearly extrapolate outside the defined values.

I sort of understand the mathematics, but I find it very difficult putting it in code without it becoming unintelligible.

I also see that in .Net, DrawLine and DrawCurve can plot between points. I've tried it but I don't know how to access the new 'drawn between' values of the line/curve, nor can I get any lines drawn outside of the defined points.

I must be missing something obvious. Any ideas anyone ?

Thanks!

......................................................................

TRK3 - no the points are set in stone so I wouldn't need the least squares fit. I might need x = y * m + b though. Thanks for the help!

Walt Fair, Jr - that was what I was after for the inbetween points - it's obvious when it's shown to you - thanks!

As far as I see it now I will look for the first and last real values of Y in the array and then interpolate between the points with your formula. Then I will have to extrapolate the two end lines, I guess by using the 2 points at each end as the slope. Strange I haven't found any code to do this though.
Anyway, cheers all!

Posted 28-Jun-11 7:54am

codetowns

Updated 29-Jun-11 0:01am

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Dr.Walt Fair, PE 29-Jun-11 23:17pm

Extrapolation uses the same exact formula. You can go through the math to show that.

codetowns 30-Jun-11 11:12am

In the end I used the extrapolation formula from Wikipedia and all is well with it. Am very pleased and am learning all the time. Cheers!

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Dr.Walt Fair, PE · Accepted Answer · 2011-06-28T08:23:00

The formula for interpolation is straight forward, assuming your values are in X(i) in sorted order and Y(i) corresponds to X(i), Y(i) = Y(i-1) + (X(i) - X(i-1))*(Y(i+1) - Y(i-1))/(X(i+1) - X(i-1)), where the values of both X and Y are known at i-1 and i+1.

As far as the DrawLine and DrawCurve methods, they draw to the screen (or a graphics context). They don't create an array of points that you can readily read.

TRK3 · Accepted Answer · 2011-06-28T09:40:00

Are the Y values something measured that are supposed to be in a straight line but might vary due to measurement errors?

If so, calculating the least-squares-fit line is your best bet. Here's a good link that describes the algorithm and gives you the vb code:

http://www.vb-helper.com/howto_linear_least_squares.html[^]

The algorithm in that link gives you the equation of the best fit line in terms of a slope (m) and intercept (b) such that:

x = y * m + b

So if you have that, you can calculate y for any given x.

If on the other hand the data isn't expected to be a line, but you just want to fill in the missing y's by linearly interpolating, then Walt Fair, Jr.'s solution works great.

Interpolate / Extrapolate in Visual Basic .NET

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