Here is how you do the addition using the mouse to point at the cells as you add. If one or more of the cells are not a number, the formula will result in an errorĪs any Excel formulas, the result will always show the current value of the addition of these cells.Īny time you change one of the values in the added cells, the result will change immediately to show the correct sum of these cells. What happens if you add cells that are not numbers
If one or more of the cells are empty, Excel will consider them zero. When you press Enter, the formula is calculating the result and Excel is displaying it in the B6 cell (or wherever you typed the formula): What happens when you add empty cells To identify the cells, Excel uses a different color for each one. Notice how the cells in the formula are highlighting as you type. =B2+B3+B4+B5 (type Enter to calculate the formula) How to build up the addition formulaĪlternatively, you can type the entire formula using your keyboard The Excel Formula is built as you type or as you select each cell to be added. How to create a simple additionĪ simple addition looks like this: Total = B2 + B3+ B4+ B5 Assuming that we want to add all the amounts in January, let’s do a simple addition of the 4 numbers highlighted. In the example below we have a list of cells containing the amount of money in sales for 12 months for 4 products. Adding numbers in a column or on a row is one of the most basic Excel Functions.