It may not be the neatest but...
Make another column, and use an IF statement to make one of the columns your
using in the SUMPRODUCT = 0 unless the first character = H. I think you'd
use the LEFT function to obtain the H or whatever else it is, to use in the
IF function.

Eg. =IF(LEFT(C1,1)="h",A1,0)

Then you can use this new column instead of one of the older ones in your
SUMPRODUCT function.

"Charles" wrote:

=SUMPRODUCT(('Jan 05'!$B$2:$B$4963="20 ")*('Jan
05'!$C$2:$C$4963="H*")*'Jan 05'!$D$2:$D$4963)
In above example I would like to sum certain celss if c2 through c4963 has a
string that starts with an H and I dont care what follows. I used the * as
wildcard but I don't think it is right as it does not work. How do you do
this?