Another thought.

Could A1 to A5 be formatted as text?

Try this in A7:
=A1+A2+A3+A4+A5
And see if you get a result.

Sum() will not add text values.

Reformat the cells to General or Number, and re-enter the values.
--
HTH,

RD

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"aaron" wrote in message
...
the SUM function doesn't calculate if there are any blank cells in the
array.

example: if i put in- sum(a1:a5) in cell a6, the return = "0". if i put in
value 1 in a1, the return is still "0"!

what's going on?