vlookup question

[greg]

Hello,
I have a spreadsheet. that has 2 columns A and B
In the A column there are numbers. and in the B column there are people
initials.
the people can be in multiple columns
can i use vlookup to add up all the numbers by a persons initals?
so:

A B
4 xx
5 xx
2 yy
8 xx
7 yy

I see I could do somthing like this
but it is an error
= VLOOKUP("xx", A11:B14, 1, FALSE)

can anyone help?
thanks

 

[JE McGimpsey]

If you want to "add up all the numbers by a person's initials", don't
use VLOOKUP at all:

=SUMIF(B4:B7,"xx",A4:A7)

Or, to get a list of everyone's sums, use a Pivot Table instead.

 

[PCLIVE]

Try this:

= SUMIF(B1:B10,"xx",A1:A10)

 

[greg]

WOW....
ok. that worked.
thought it would be the vlookup
thanks

 

[haas786]

Hello,
I have a spreadsheet. that has 2 columns A and B
In the A column there are numbers. and in the B column there are people
initials.
the people can be in multiple columns
can i use vlookup to add up all the numbers by a persons initals?
so:

A B
4 xx
5 xx
2 yy
8 xx
7 yy

I see I could do somthing like this
but it is an error
= VLOOKUP("xx", A11:B14, 1, FALSE)

can anyone help?
thanks

I'd suggest doing this. Either below all the data, or to the side,
you'll need two columns. In one column, type in the names. In the
second column, you want to use the SUMIF formula. Here's my
assumptions - the numbers for each name are in cells A2 to A12 and the
names are in cells B2 to B12. In cells A15 and down, you place all the
names you want to sum up. Next to the names, starting in cell B15,
type this formula:

=sumif($B$2:$B$12,A15,$A$2:$A$12)

Hope this helps.