Today we will learn a new and exciting excel formula – the all powerful SUMPRODUCT.
At the outset SUMPRODUCT formula may not seem like all that useful. But once you understand how excel works with lists (or arrays) of data, the SUMPRODUCT’s relevance becomes crystal clear.
SUMPRODUCT formula – syntax and usage
The sum-product formula syntax is very simple. It takes 1 or more arrays of numbers and gets the sum of products of corresponding numbers.
The syntax is =SUMPRODUCT (list 1, list 2 ...)
So, for ex: if you have data like {2,3,4} in one list and {5,10,20} in another list, and if you apply SUMPRODUCT, you will get 120 (because 2*5 + 3*10 + 4*20 is 120).
At this point it might seem like an almost useless function. But all that will change in the next 2 minutes, keep reading.
SUMPRODUCT and Arrays
Lets say you have a list of sales data with columns Name, Region, Product and Sales. Now, you want to know how many units the sales person named “Luke” sold. This is simple, you will write a SUMIF formula [examples] and use the Name column as “criteria range” and Sales column as “sum range”.
But, wait a second, you want to find how many units sales person “Luke” sold in the region “west”.
Hmm…. we have 2 options,
- Use an array formula
- Use a pivot table [what is a pivot table?]
Actually, there is a hidden third option, use SUMPRODUCT.
That is right, my friend, we can use SUMPRODUCT to do just this (and much more).
Using SUMPRODUCT as an array formula
Assuming, the data is in range A1:D10, with Name in column A, Region in B, Product in C and Sales in D, the SUMPRODUCT formula is,
=SUMPRODUCT(--(A1:A10="Luke Skywalker"),--(B1:B10="West"),D1:D10)
Okay, lets take a minute and try to understand WTF (what the formula) is doing.
- The portion
--(A1:A10="Luke Skywalker")is looking for Luke Skywalker across planetary systems in all universes 😉 It is going to give us a bunch of ONEs and ZEROs, one if the cell has Luke, Zero if the cell has something else. - The portion
--(B1:B10="West")is doing the same, but gets 1s when the value is “West”. - The portion
D1:D10is just returning all the sales figures. - When you put everything together and multiply, it just works. Why? That is your home work to figure out.
Share your SUMPRODUCT formula Tips & Tricks
SUMPRODUCT formula can do much more once you understand how it works. This post is meant to open the door for you. Go ahead and explore the possibilities, then come back and share your tips with us.
Recommended Reading
I suggest reading the excel array formula examples, sumif with multiple conditions and other excel formula tutorials.
This post is part of our spreadcheats series
17 Responses to “Custom Number Formats – Colors”
You are right, Chandoo. I was playing with the colour numbers last week and some of them don't appear different from each other. Others are totally different from yours.
@Duncan
Each version of Excel, post 2003, renders colors slightly differently
Different language versions may also have different default color palettes
Hello in french
excel 2010
colo1 = couleur1 = black
[couleur1]; [couleur2]; etc..
@Hui, thank you very much again for this great post.
However - under Excel 2007, Hungarian version your solution does not work with color names. I've tried both English and Hungarian names, but drops an error message "not valid formats"
Do you have any idea how to solve this issue?
thanks in advance
@Andras
Without a Hungarian version of Excel 2003 I don't think I can assist
Have you tried using the colour numbers? I couldn't get the names to work (despite using an english version of excel). but it did work with the numbers though. I left out the "u" and was easily able to produce burgundy using [color9]
Here a possible solution: find an English version of Excel, write there the formats using English names, then open the file in the Hungarian version and see the translation.
In Excel 2007 I can't get the colour names to work e.g Sea Green but the numbers do e.g color3 - colour3 does not work so I must bow to the country that has stolen my language (ha ha!)
Hey chandoo, nice Tip!
Wouldn't be easier just apply some conditional formatting for negative numbers and another for positive numbers? Or there's some cases that you can't do that?
Unfortunately the TEXT function doesn't color the cell as number formatting does.
Hi Hui,
Great post Sir, love the new way of formatting with color numbers.
I am using 2007, and it leads me to the last color number 56.
Thanks Hui.
[…] explains how to set up custom number formats with a wide array of […]
Thanks Hui - works a treat!
Thank you, very helpful.
Trying to figure out if it is possible to apply color only to a part of the cell?
E.g. I have a value formatted as Accounting with a currency symbol.
Those I find somewhat distracting though necessary. If I could make them less obtrusive by coloring them gray while the number would stay black, that would be great. Tried tinkering with the format string, but didn't get the desired result. Single color for complete cell value works, but coloring just part of it could not be achieved. Maybe somebody managed that?
Exactly what I was looking for - thank you!
colour in the Australian doesn't work - we have to go American and no problem.
I always thought is was 56 colours notice you have 57. Cool.
thanks
Analir Pisani
Customised Microsoft Office Training Specialist
Sydney - Australia
http://www.azsolutions.com.au
Thank You!