Using Excel: Finding Certain Values and Adding them

[simonvee]

Hi,

Attached is a fictitious scenario- I want to be able to summate a certain value. For example, the value I am focusing on in this instance is 'wages'.

Shown in the picture is a sales table for 2 weeks only. However, imagine if it was for 52 weeks running down like that on one single excel sheet and I want to find the summation of 'wages' for all 52 weeks. Is there a formula for it? This scenario is different because the cells are not aligned together straight in a row/column.

 

[McBie]

You can use the SUMIF() function where you add the values in column H when the value of column G equals "Wages"

Cheers ... McBie

 

[simonvee]

Pardon my amateur excel skills, can illustrate it with a formula...
You were right in guessing the Wages were in H column

 

[McBie]

Assuming that in your print screen the leftmost column is column A, then to sum all wages, the formula would be .....

=SUMIF(G:G;"Wages";H:H)

This formula will search every cell in column G, compare the value of that cell with the string "Wages" and if there is a match, it will add ( sum ) the corresponding cell value in column H.

Am I making sense ?

Cheers ... McBie

 

[simonvee]

Correct, the leftmost column is A

However, I even copied and pasted your formula in excel on a cell and there was an error where the second G is

 

[McBie]

Did you put the = sign in front of the formula, I forgot that in my reply ( changed it now )

Update : I noticed that in your formula, the arguments are separated by a comma, whilst it should be a semicolon.
What version of Excel are you using and on what platform ?

To be 100% sure, you could insert the SUMIF function in a cell ( from the menu ) and select the ranges and criteria manually. That will make sure that the syntax is correct.


Cheers ... McBie

 

[simonvee]

Did you put the = sign in front of the formula, I forgot that in my reply ( changed it now )

Update : I noticed that in your formula, the arguments are separated by a comma, whilst it should be a semicolon.

What version of Excel are you using and on what platform ?

To be 100% sure, you could insert the SUMIF function in a cell ( from the menu ) and select the ranges and criteria manually. That will make sure that the syntax is correct.



Cheers ... McBie

a) Sorry about the screen print before. I actually did put a semi-colon. I sent a new screen print.

b) Yosemite
Office 2011

c) I sent a screen print for this one. Did not work also. Strange

 

[McBie]

When you insert the function SUMIF and you get the grey box ( item c ) did you manually enter gg as range and hh as sum_range. Or did you select range and sum_range by using the mouse and click on column g ( range ) and h ( sum_range ) ..... and thus selecting the complete column.
To me it looks like you typed gg and hh and not selected it via the mouse.

Cheers ... McBie

 

[simonvee]

You're a genius!! Thanks!

How do you know this much about Excel? Exposed to it a lot at work?

 

[McBie]

No worries mate, glad I could help.

Cheers ... McBie