Sum formula does not work - pls help me

[muffy123]

hI gUYS

Greetings

I have exported Msaccess file to excel 97 format for my
dailyoperations. I normally do this as a routine and after exporting
when I do autosum it works but today something funny, My autosum does
not work.

I have tried all the possible ways to get sum but no use.

but when I do a1+a2+a3+a4....... and press I get the total but when I
press E - autosum option in the toolbar and select it doen't work . I
tired changing all formatiing options but in vain. Even i tried
@sum(a1:a20) but the value shows only '0'. I even tried copying those
values to another sheet but no use. bt in new worksheet I type some
numbers and try sum it works. This problems persist in this exported
file. All these day I do the same it works but now It doesn't..

Pls guys u people r experts and I hope u all would have understood my
problem and help me out ASAP.

I need to send my report to my boss this afternoon

Thanks for ur help
prajeeth

 

[Frank Kabel]

Hi
does the formula
=SUM(A1:A20)
work?

 

[JE McGimpsey]

Your numbers were entered as text, I'd guess.

Copy and empty cell. Select your numbers. Choose Edit/Paste Special,
selecting the Values and Add radio buttons. Click OK.

This should coerce your text numbers to real numbers that SUM() will
evaluate (the + operator coerces the text as well, which is why your
a1+a2... works).

 

[JE McGimpsey]

It won't, I'd bet, because the values are text, not numbers. SUM()
ignores them but the + operator coerces them.