Totaling Numbers With SUM

Imagine a column of ten sales numbers. You could write =A1+A2+A3 and so on, but that gets long and easy to mistype. Spreadsheets give you a faster tool: the SUM function.

SUM adds up a whole group of cells in one short formula. Instead of listing every cell, you point SUM at a range and it totals everything inside.

In this lesson you will learn to total any list of numbers with a single, clean formula.

A function is a built-in shortcut for a common task. It has a name (like SUM) followed by parentheses that hold the arguments you give it.

The shape is always the same:

• = tells the spreadsheet to calculate
• SUM is the function name
• (A1:A10) is the argument inside parentheses

Every function follows this =NAME(arguments) pattern, so once you learn one, the rest feel familiar.