Universal formulas for any given row

[lamontd7]

Hello, I am new to Excel and I need help with creating formulas. I am
trying to create a few formulas that will perform simple mathematical
operations on data contained in any given row of the spreadsheet. I
think I have figured out how to create a formula if I specify exactly
which cells I want to perform mathematical operations on (i.e.,
entering "=A2+B2" into cell C2), but what I really need is to create
universal formulas that, for any given row, will sum the values of
column A and column B of that same row (i.e, cell CX=AX+BX, where X
could be any single given row). For Row 5, for example, the formula
would be C5=A5+B5, but since entering a new formula into each cell one
by one wouldn't save me much/any time compared to just calculating the
sums manually, I am wondering if/how I can create a general formula
that will leave the row undefined and just perform mathematical
operations on two or more columns which I specify, for any given row in
the spreadsheet. In other words, I want to associate with column C a
formula that, for any given row, will sum the values in columns A and B
of that same given row. Can anyone tell me how to do that?

Thank you very much for any help you can give me.

 

[Guest]

This is so simple even *I* can answer it, though you may get many more answers. The
beauty of Excel is that are usually several ways to do things.

When you write in eg C1 that it is =A1+B1, all you need to do is copy (ctrl C) the
formulae down to the range you want, eg C2,C3,c4 so on. Excel automatically makes the
formulae relative, eg C5 becomes A5+B5.

 

[Guest]

Hi
In C1 put =A1+B1
Now you can either click the bottom right hand corner of C1 and drag down as
far as you need, or, if there is already data in all of the A cells and B
cells, simply double click on the bottom right hand corner of C1, to fill the
column.
HTH
Michael Mitchelson

 

[David McRitchie]

there was another thread in another newsgroup
http://google.co.uk/groups?threadm=e#[email protected]

best to avoid posting to multiple newsgroups as you have pretty much
the same audience and tend to dilute all of the responses.

Good to see some additional participation here; and from answering
questions you learn a lot just from having to put things into words.