Forum Discussion
Excel sum problem
I can't get a column to sum, although there is no text, and the numbers in the column are contiguous. I have tried various formulas, but the sum is always zero, which is absurd. I don't know what else to do, all the other columns on the sheet can be summed very easily. I don't know what could be different about this column.
Carrie4525 wrote: ``there is no text``
Looks can be deceiving, and the format of the cells does not matter.
The cell values are probably text, notwithstanding appearances. Confirm with formulas of the form =ISTEXT(A1).
If you cannot remedy the problem yourself, you need to provide an Excel file that demonstrates the problem. Try to remove extraneous details from the file, especially private information. But be sure that the Excel file still demonstrates the problem. And try to preserve the formulas, if any, that generate the values that you are trying to sum.
Ideally, click "browse files" near the Post button to attach the example Excel file. If you do not see the "browse files" link, upload an example Excel file that demonstrates the problem to a file-sharing website, and post a download URL that does not require that we log in. I like box.net/files; others like dropbox.com. You might like onedrive.live.com because it uses the same login as this forum.
If you cannot post the URL verbatim, edit it manually. For example, the URL for this thread is
techcommunity dot microsoft dot com/t5/excel/excel-sum-problem/m-p/3766847
JoeUser2004 I appreciate your response but am not sure I can follow your instructions. I will try and get back with results.
- Thanks for your advice. I went through the entries one by one and there was some text that I changed and now it is working.
- It's possible the column of numbers are being treated as texts. You could try to re-evaluate the column with Text to Columns.
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/convert-numbers-stored-as-text-to-numbers-40105f2a-fe79-4477-a171-c5bad0f0a885- Thank you. I tried to do that but it didn't work.
- Thanks for your advice. I went through the entries one by one and there was some text that I changed and now it is working. Still don't know why there was text, but the problem was solved, thank you.
