You'd have to include something like:

ISNUMBER(SEARCH("January",A2))

Andy.

"hotelmasters" wrote in message
...
perfect, thanks.

do you know how i can lookup value that isn't precise. for example if i
was
using a vlookup function is there a way to lookup a value that isn't
exact,
as if i was looking up "January" but wanted to include cells that contain
either January or January '06 or January 2006?

thanks

"Andy" wrote:

Hi

Have a look at the SUMIF function:
=SUMIF(A2:A50,"Petty Cash",B2:B50)

Hope this helps.
Andy.

"hotelmasters" wrote in message
...
If i have a table with similar names and values next to the name, how
can
I
sum up all of those numbers similar to a vlookup function where i could
say
"total all numbers 1 column away from 'petty cash'"?
i.e

Petty Cash 5,575
Check 2000
Check 1575
Petty Cash 4075