Try
=SUMIF(A1:A117,"bj",B1:B117)

It will sum the cells in the range B1:B117 where the corresponding cell in
Col A is bj
"john b" wrote:

trying to get the total of a cell based on the value in another cell. eg if
cell A contains the value "bj", the sum the value in cell b1:b117, where cell
a contains the value "bj", here is the formula I tried.
sum(if(a1:a117,= " bj", b1:b117)), this give the the total of cell b1:b117,
not what I want. tks for help jb

sorry missed the = first time I posted...