1. How To Take Natural Log In Excel
2. Calculate Natural Log In Excel

LN Function in Excel calculates the natural logarithm of a given number.

The Natural Logarithm of a number, ( Ln(x) or Log_e(x) ), is the logarithm to the base e.

The following step-by-step example shows how to perform logarithmic regression in Excel. Step 1: Create the Data. First, let’s create some fake data for two variables: x and y: Step 2: Take the Natural Log of the Predictor Variable. Next, we need to create a new column that represents the natural log of the predictor variable x. The Excel LN function returns the natural logarithm of a given number.

Syntax of Natural Logarithmic Function in Excel – LN()

Where Argument number is the positive real number that you want to calculate the natural logarithm of.

Example of Natural Logarithmic Function in Excel – LN()

Formula

e⁰ = 1, therefore LN(1)=0 so the result will be

Result

#NUM! Error occurs if the supplied number argument is negative or zero.

You probably already know how to do standard graphs in Excel. Sometimes, you'll need to take it up another level and do logarithmical or semi-logarithmical graphs.Properly made graphs can give a concise and compact form of representation, while graphs made poorly can be misleading and very confusing.

Why use logarithmical graphs?

If you find yourself with data spread on an extremely large area, the graph will be very compact and you may miss some sharp drops in values because of this.

A semi-logarithmical graph is has one of the two axes (usually the abscissa) in a logarithmical form. The logarithmical base is usually 10, but can also be “e” or any other base.

Well let's suppose you have the following table:

How To Take Natural Log In Excel

X	1	2	5	10	20	50	100	200	500	1000	2000
Y	1	2	4	16	256	65536	4.29E+09	1.84E+19	3.4E+38	1.16E+77	1.3E+154

The corresponding Excel scatter chart is this:

On the other hand, if you extract the logarithm of both X and Y rows you get this table:

log_x	0	0.3	0.7	1	1.3	1.7	2	2.3	2.7	3	3.3
log_y	0	0.3	0.6	1.2	2.41	4.82	9.63	19.27	38.53	77.06	154.13

And its corresponding graph:

Does it make sense now? I thought so

How to obtain the logarithmic graph

Double click the axis that you want to be on a logarithmical scale. In the 'Scale' tab, select the 'Logarithmical Scale' option and click ok.

Calculate Natural Log In Excel

Then, go to the Chart Options (in the Chart menu) and in the 'Gridlines' tab check the 'Minor gridlines' on the axes you want depending of the desired graph type: semi-logarithmical or logarithmical.