Microsoft Excel Tutorial - How to add values in rows, columns and SUM function

There are a variety of ways to add up the numbers found in two or more cells in Excel. This lesson shows you several methods including the SUM function.

To add two or more numbers in Excel you need to create a formula. Two important points to remember about Excel formulas:
 

• formulas in Excel always begin with the equal sign ( = )
• the equal sign always goes in the cell where you want the answer to go
   

Option One – Adding Numbers in Column

Let's say you want to add cells in column A, such as A1, A2, A3 and A4. You can type the following formula into, say, A5:

For example you want to add the following values: A1=3 ; A2=1 ; A3=21; A4=5

=A1+A2+A3+A4    

If you type this and then press Enter, the result of this calculation will be displayed in cell A5 (the place you typed the formula).  

Cell A5 will display total = 30.
 

Also note that Excel doesn't mind if you type the formula in lower case as shown below - Excel will automatically convert each letter to uppercase when you press Enter:   =a1+a2+a3+a4   The great thing about adding up cells in this way is that the formula will always show the current value of the sum of these cells. Any time you change one of the values in cells A1,A2, A3 or A4, the value in A5 will change immediately to show the correct sum of these cells.

Of course, this approach to adding up cells becomes difficult to manage once you have a large number of cells to be added.

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Option Two – Adding Numbers in Rows

Let's say you have several cells in column A, B and C such as A1, B1, and C1. You can type the following formula into, say, D1:

=A1+B1+C1       or         =a1+b1+c1
 

If you type this and then press Enter, the result of this calculation will be displayed in cell D1 (the place you typed the formula).

Also note that Excel doesn't mind if you type the formula in lower case as shown below - Excel will automatically convert each letter to uppercase when you press Enter:

Related: MS Excel for Business Professionals


Option Three – Adding values in different Cells

Lets say you want to add values present randomly in different cells like. A2, C3, D4 and show result in cell E1. You can type the following formula into, say, E1:
 

=A2+C3+D4       or         =a2+c3+d4
 

If you type this and then press Enter, the result of this calculation will be displayed in cell E1 (the place you typed the formula).

Note that if one or more of the cells are empty or contain text rather than a number, Excel will simply ignore those values when calculating the result.

Of course, this approach is best if you want to add up values present in different cells in Excel.

Related: The Ultimate Guide to Building a Financial Model

Option Four - use the SUM() function when you want to add more than 10 or more values

The SUM() function is a more efficient way of adding up cells since it allows you to specify the first and last cell in a range of cells to be added up. The SUM() function then adds up all the cells from the start to the end of the range. It is particularly powerful because it can be used to add up millions of cells in a very short, simple formula.

If we look at our earlier example, you could use SUM() as shown in the following formula, which would achieve the same result (adding up cells A1 to A15). In cell A16 you can type the following formula.

=sum(A2:A15)

This formula adds up all the cells from A1 to A15 inclusive. That way, if you were adding up a larger range of cells, such as from A1 to A200, you could type:

=sum(A1:A200)

You can add up numbers from more than one column at the same time. Let's say that column B also contains numbers that should be included in the calculation. You could write the formula as follows in cell B16:

=sum(A1:B15)

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