5
SUM
TheSUMfunctionisthesingularlymostusedfunctionwithinExcel.Itisusedtototalvaluesinyour
worksheets.Thesevaluesmaybecontinuous,noncontinuous,fromdifferentworksheets,etc,oravariety
thereof.
Thesyntaxis=SUM(number1,[number2],[...])
Anexampleoftheformulais=SUM(A1:A4).TheEnglishtranslationisaddupallofthevaluesfoundinthe
rangeofbetweenA1andA4,inclusive,anddisplaystheresult.
NoticethatIhaveoneextralinewithinmyformula.Ido
thatonallofmyformulasasabestpractice.IfI
needtoaddanyadditionalrows,bydoingsoabovetheblankrow,Iamensuredmyformulawill properly
bemodifiedautomatically.
Therearemanyvariationstothisformula,thisisjustoneexample.
ROUND
TheROUNDfunction
roundsanumbertoaspecifiednumberofdigits.Thissho uldnotbeconfusedwith
formattingtoaspecifieddecimalplaces.
Thesyntaxis=ROUND(number,num_digits)
ExpandingourpreviousSUMformulafromabove,theformulais=ROUND(SUM(A1:A4),2).TheEnglish
translationisaddupallofthevaluesfoundintherangeofbetweenA1andA4,inclusive,roundtheresult
totwodecimalplaces,anddisplaytheresult.
It
isimportantnottoconfuseroundingtoaspecificnumberofdecimalsandformattingyourcelltoa
specificnumberofdecimals.Forexample,ifcellA5belowcontains18.44978.Ifweweretoformatthecell
totwodecimalplaces,18.45willbedisplayed.However,Excelstillseesit
as18.44978(Beforepicture).IfI
Addupthevaluesinthisrange
Andplacetheresulthere