Do you have a data table where you need to pick all the highest, lowest, best, worst, or equal to 2? SUMIF, and its bigger brother SUMIFS formulas can help sum cells of your choice.

Syntax

=SUMIF(criteria range, criteria, values to sum range)
=SUMIFS(values to sum range, criteria range, ctriteria)

Steps

  1. Type =SUMIF(
  2. Select or type range reference that you want to apply the criteria against $E$3:$E$10
  3. Type criteria (alternatively cell reference which contains can be used) "FL"
  4. Select or type range reference that includes cells to add $H$3:$H$10
  5. Type ) and press Enter to complete formula

Note: When using SUMIFS, follow steps according to syntax of SUMIFS.

=SUMIF($E$3:$E$10,"FL",$H$3:$H$10)

=SUMIFS($H$3:$H$10,$E$3:$E$10,"FL")

How

Both functions can be used to sum cells that meet a criteria. They search a given criteria in a criteria range, this processes result is an array of TRUE/FALSE. For example; searching FL value in $E$3:$E$10 range returns {TRUE, FALSE, FALSE, TRUE, FALSE, TRUE, TRUE, TRUE}. And then TRUE/FALSE array is matched with array of values in sum range which is {$48,972, $38,828, $81,662, $44,000, $72,000, $87,633, $80,850, $80,784}. Sum of match values gives the result we need ($342,239).

However; syntax is slightly different between formulas. Although; SUMIFS function’s criteria based arguments come after sum range to be able to handle multiple criteria, to use SUMIFS for single criteria is completely safe and preferable.