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Richard707's avatar
Richard707
Copper Contributor
Nov 08, 2023

Trouble with adding numbers in a column

Hello,

 

Just recently I've run into trouble adding the numbers in a column. I used to highlight the column and (thought) I went to the sigma/formula symbol and clicked on that. Even when it says "sum", I do "alt plus the = symbol after highlighting the column but nothing happens.

 

Thanks for your help!

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  • Riny_van_Eekelen's avatar
    Riny_van_Eekelen
    Platinum Contributor
    Nov 09, 2023

    Richard707 When Autosum just shows =SUM() but not a result, I suspect that the numbers are texts. See picture below.

    Did you copy/paste them from somewhere else? Or perhaps did you format the column/range as Text before you entered the numbers.

     

     

    • Richard_Leahy's avatar
      Richard_Leahy
      Copper Contributor
      Nov 09, 2023
      Hi Riny,

      Thanks for that; so you're saying I should be sure all the numbers are formatted as numbers not "general?"

      I did that but still no luck. When I highlighted the column and either use "Autosum" or type "=SUM and then (column letter number: column letter end number) I get "30+F1F3:F25" in the first cell, or "#NAME?" in the bottom cell. Where do I go from here?

      Thanks,
      Richard

      • Riny_van_Eekelen's avatar
        Riny_van_Eekelen
        Platinum Contributor
        Nov 10, 2023

        Richard_Leahy No, I didn't say that. The should be numbers, If you, for instance, copy and paste a text consisting of just numbers into Excel it still is a text. You need to use Text-to-columns to transform these texts to real numbers. Only then you can do calculations with them.

         

        Can you upload the file or share a link (Onedrive or similar) giving access to it?

  • NikolinoDE's avatar
    NikolinoDE
    Gold Contributor
    Nov 09, 2023

    Richard707 

    It seems like you are having trouble summing the numbers in a column in Microsoft Excel.

    Here is a step-by-step guide on how to do it:

    1. Click on the cell where you want the sum to appear.
    2. Type =SUM( in that cell.
    3. Now, select the range of cells you want to sum. For example, if you want to sum the numbers in column A from A1 to A10, select those cells.
    4. After selecting the range, close the formula by typing ).

    So your formula should look like this: =SUM(A1:A10).

    1. Finally, press Enter, and Excel will calculate and display the sum of the selected numbers in the cell.

    If you encounter any issues with this method, please provide more details.

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