SUMIF function: Description, Usage, Syntax, Examples and Explanation

Syntax of SUMIF function

SUMIF(range, criteria, [sum_range])

The SUMIF function syntax has the following arguments:

• range: The range of cells that you want evaluated by criteria. Cells in each range must be numbers or names, arrays, or references that contain numbers. Blank and text values are ignored. The selected range may contain dates in standard Excel format (examples below).
• criteria: The criteria in the form of a number, expression, a cell reference, text, or a function that defines which cells will be added. For example, criteria can be expressed as 32, “>32”, B5, “32”, “apples”, or TODAY().

  Important: Any text criteria or any criteria that includes logical or mathematical symbols must be enclosed in double quotation marks (“). If the criteria is numeric, double quotation marks are not required.
• sum_range   Optional. The actual cells to add, if you want to add cells other than those specified in the range argument. If the sum_range argument is omitted, Excel adds the cells that are specified in the range argument (the same cells to which the criteria is applied).

• You can use the wildcard characters—the question mark (?) and asterisk (*)—as the criteria argument. A question mark matches any single character; an asterisk matches any sequence of characters. If you want to find an actual question mark or asterisk, type a tilde (~) preceding the character.

SUMIF formula explanation

• The SUMIF function returns incorrect results when you use it to match strings longer than 255 characters or to the string #VALUE!.
• The sum_range argument does not have to be the same size and shape as the range argument. The actual cells that are added are determined by using the upper leftmost cell in the sum_range argument as the beginning cell, and then including cells that correspond in size and shape to the range argument. For example:

However, when the range and sum_range arguments in the SUMIF function do not contain the same number of cells, worksheet recalculation may take longer than expected.