The invention relates to a method for calculating (10) an operating variable (B) of an
electric machine (12), comprising at least the steps of providing (14) a
data set (16) formed from a plurality of sample points (c), multidimensional and depicting operating parameters of the
electric machine (12) and specifying parameter values (C) of a periodic parameter of the operating variable (B) of the
electric machine (12) in one dimension, specifying a query point (q) deviating from the sample points (c) in the dimensions of the
data set (16), identifying (20) sample points (c) of the
data set (16) locally assigned to the query point (q) as
reference sample points (c 11 , c 12 , c 21 , c 22 ), parameter correction (24) of the parameter value (C 12 ) at least one second
reference sample point (C 12) by a periodic shift depending on a parameter relationship between the parameter value (C 12 ) of the second
reference sample point (c 12 ) and the parameter value (C 11 ) of a first reference sample point (c 11 ) to reduce periodically caused parameter discontinuities (18), calculating (26) an approximated parameter value (C q ) at the query point (q) by
data approximation (28) at least depending on the corrected parameter value (C' 12 ), calculating (34) the operating variable (B) at least dependent on the approximated parameter value (C q ). Furthermore, the invention relates to an electric
machine (12).