#VALUE! When Attempting To SUM A Funtion that Does Not Print "FALSE"

[Fred]

Here's what I'm trying to do.

I have a few rows of cells executing a function that inserts a dollar
amount when "Yes" is entered in the adjacent cell.
Here's what the cell looks like

COLUMN I COLUMN J
"YES" =IF(I9="YES",15.99,"")
"YES" =IF(I10="YES",15.99,"")
"YES" =IF(I11="YES",15.99,"")

As you can see I did my best to avoid Excel from printing "FALSE" when
the cell is empty
The problem is that I'm trying to sum the dollar amounts in COLUMN J
using this function
=J1+J2+J3

What I get in the cell that's adding the three amounts in COLUMN J
is……. #VALUE!

Can any one help me understand why the dollar amounts will not SUM?

Scott from PA

 

[Dave Peterson]

Because "" isn't a number.

You could use:
=sum(J11:j13)

=sum() ignores text.