Creating a column of sums (easy question)

[lbarrett]

Please bear with me. This is my first post. I'm sure this is a fairly stupid question, but I'm new-ish to Excel, haven't been able to find the answer in Excel help, and my employer doesn't have any Excel guides. Part of the problem is I don't know WHERE to look in help because I don't know Excel "lingo".

I have two columns, L and M. L is Expenditures for 2001, M is same for 2002. Each row is a building for which the expenditures occurred. I want to create a column N that sums the expenditures for 2001 and 2002 on each building. I know how to do this cell-by-cell using Sum(L1:M1) and so on, but I don't know how to do it all at once.

Again, sorry for asking such a basic question. Without a user's manual, I just don't know where else to turn. Thanks.

 

[Cam]

If I understand right you want to sum both columns in one shot.

=sum(L1:M50)

Where L1 is your first data cell and M50 is your last.

 

[lbarrett]

Sorry, I guess that wasn't clear. I don't want a single sum of all the values in the two columns -- I want a column where N1=L1+M1, N2=L2+M2, N3=L3+M3, and so on.

 

[Cam]

In cell N1 put =L1+M1 and the move your mouse over to the bottom right of the cell and click and drag it all the way down. This will drag the formula down, creating =L2+M2...and so on all in one quick motion.

Hope this helps.

 

[lbarrett]

That did it. Thank you! There are 400+ rows, so adding up the expenditures one row at a time would have made for a very long day at the office. :wink:
This message was edited by lbarrett on 2002-08-28 13:03

 

[PaddyD]

On 2002-08-28 12:51, Cam wrote:
In cell N1 put =L1+M1 and the move your mouse over to the bottom right of the cell and click and drag it all the way down...

Just as an FYI - if your data in col M (the one next to the column with the formula in) doesn't have any gaps, there's a quicker way than dragging down.

1) put your foirmula in a cell at the top of your data (N1 in the example)
2) select the cell - the cell will have a heavy outline to indicate that it is the active cell.
3) In the bottom right hand corner of the outline, there is a little square - it's known as the 'fill handle'. Double click it.
4) Be amazed as excel automatically copies your formula down to the end of the data in column M!

Paddy
This message was edited by PaddyD on 2002-08-28 15:11