Forum home » Topics » What is the Excel SUMIF function?
You use the Excel SUMIF function to sum the values in a range that meet criteria that you specify.
The SUMIF function allows you to find the total of one group of data from a table that has a number of groups of data.
An example would be to use a SUMIF function to get the total sum of salaries paid to people that worked in the marketing department (1 variable of group) from a table that held this information on a number of departments, i.e., marketing, finance, HR, and Sales (multiple variables or groups).
For example, suppose that in a column that contains numbers, you want to sum only the values that are larger than 5. You can use the following formula:
=SUMIF(B2:B25,">5")
The syntax for SUMIF is as follows:
SUMIF(range, criteria, [sum_range])
The SUMIF function syntax has the following arguments:
Range: This is Required. It is the range of cells that you want evaluated by criteria. Cells in each range must be numbers or names, arrays, or references that contain numbers. Blank and text values are ignored.
Criteria: This is Required. The criteria in the form of a number, expression, a cell reference, text, or a function that defines which cells will be added.
For example, criteria can be expressed as 32, ">32", B5, 32, "32", "apples", or TODAY().
Important: Any text criteria or any criteria that includes logical or mathematical symbols must be enclosed in double quotation marks ("). If the criteria is numeric, double quotation marks are not required.
sum_range: This is optional and will be the actual cells to add, if you want to add cells other than those specified in the range argument. If the sum_range argument is omitted, Excel adds the cells that are specified in the range argument (the same cells to which the criteria is applied).
What is the sumif function?
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Once you've worked with Excel for a bit, you'll no doubt have come across different functions all containing SUM such as SUM, SUMIF, SUMIFs and DSUM. This article describes how these different functions are used to help you carry out various data analysis tasks which all involve summing. These functions differ in how you can use criteria with the SUM.
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