Share via

Atn Function

  • Article

This page is specific to the Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) Language Reference for Office 2010.

Returns a Double specifying the arctangent of a number.

Syntax

Atn(number)

The required number argument is a Double or any valid numeric expression.

Remarks

The Atn function takes the ratio of two sides of a right triangle (number) and returns the corresponding angle in radians. The ratio is the length of the side opposite the angle divided by the length of the side adjacent to the angle.

The range of the result is -pi/2 to pi/2 radians.

To convert degrees to radians, multiply degrees by pi/180. To convert radians to degrees, multiply radians by 180/pi.

Note

Atn is the inverse trigonometric function of Tan, which takes an angle as its argument and returns the ratio of two sides of a right triangle. Do not confuse Atn with the cotangent, which is the simple inverse of a tangent (1/tangent).

Example

This example uses the Atn function to calculate the value of pi.

Dim IntVar, StrVar, DateVar, MyCheck
' Initialize variables.
IntVar = 459: StrVar = "Hello World": DateVar = #2/12/69# 
MyCheck = VarType(IntVar)    ' Returns 2.
MyCheck = VarType(DateVar)    ' Returns 7.
MyCheck = VarType(StrVar)    ' Returns 8.