IMAGINARY in WPS Spreadsheet: Extract a Signed Imaginary Coefficient

=IMAGINARY(inumber)

The required argument is a complex number expressed as text. The official lesson explicitly describes both x+yi and x+yj forms. Quote a literal inside a formula, or reference a cell containing that text. The examples use explicit coefficients and lowercase suffixes, with no spaces or ambiguous shorthand.

The letter i or j identifies the imaginary unit; it does not multiply the returned real coefficient by another worksheet value. In particular, IMAGINARY("4+3j") also has expected result 3 under the documented representation.

Enter these text values in a fresh sheet, preserving their signs:

Start with B2, then copy the formula down to B5. The changing A-row reference selects each input. The negative sign in the second row belongs to the coefficient and must be retained. The negative real part in the last row does not make its imaginary coefficient negative.

For an independent literal check, =IMAGINARY("7-2i") corresponds to b = −2 in a + bi. No numerical approximation is needed to obtain these integer coefficients.

Suppose the first two rows describe two already-defined complex quantities. Their imaginary coefficients are 3 and −2. Subtracting the extracted coefficients gives 5. Adding them gives 1. These are component calculations; they are not magnitudes or phase angles.

For the first row, the full complex magnitude is sqrt(4²+3²) = 5, whereas its imaginary coefficient remains 3. Keeping separate columns headed “Imaginary coefficient” and “Magnitude” prevents an easy reporting error. A coefficient can be negative; a magnitude cannot.

If you need the imaginary term itself for a written explanation, it is 3i in the first row. That is a representational step distinct from the numeric value returned by IMAGINARY. Avoid attaching a suffix to the numeric extraction column if subsequent arithmetic needs a number.

The lesson’s walkthrough prose mistakenly refers to the result cell when describing the input selection. Its actual displayed formula references the complex-text input column. The original example above explicitly puts inputs in A and results in B, so it does not create a circular self-reference.

The source does not establish a complete error/coercion table. This guide therefore makes no exact error-code claim for malformed strings, Boolean values, blanks, uppercase suffixes or mixed suffix operations. Numeric input without a suffix and shorthand such as i are outside the worked scope. Use the explicit text forms when reproducing the examples.

IMAGINARY extracts a component; it does not validate an engineering model, infer units or parse arbitrary algebraic expressions. Its name does not mean that its result is an imaginary-valued spreadsheet object: the coefficient is an ordinary signed number.

The official WPS Academy IMAGINARY lesson, published 2019-06-10, was rechecked on October 19, 2026. The lesson’s applicability field is blank. Its edition and operating-system scope are therefore unspecified. The publication date is evidence that the function was documented by that date, not its introduction date. Exact numeric builds, first and last supported versions remain unknown. The lesson does not establish retirement or deprecation, or parity across platforms and editions.

These are original documentation-based examples with independently calculated expected values. They were not executed in WPS. Vendor demonstrations are historical documentation, not our application tests. Application input handling and workbook interchange remain unverified. English function names and comma separators follow the lesson.

• IMABS: obtain magnitude under its complex-input contract.
• IMCONJUGATE: change the sign of the imaginary component.
• IMSUB: subtract two complex quantities.