Other contributors have given a variety of answers to your question, but
would you like to enlighten us by telling us what value you think the SUM()
function adds to your formula?
What does =sum(a2+a3+a4+a5) do for you that =(a2+a3+a4+a5) doesn't?
You may wish to look up the SUM() function in Excel help.
--
David Biddulph

"porbeagle" wrote in message
...
I have a huge number of lists that I am calculating. I have a vertical list
of numbers
each vertical cell represents a week. I am trying to add up a varing
number
of week forward to madel stock controls. Currently I am adding up each
individual cell for the number of week that i need (ie 4 weeks is
=sum(a2+a3+a4+a5). This is very clumsy and time consuming. Is there a way
to
write a formula that adds up a specified number of cells forward. i.e add
ten
cells down the list and return total?