On Thu, 18 Jun 2009 08:12:05 -0700, pierre
wrote:

=LEFT(F1;FIND("*";F1)-1)+LEFT(F2;FIND("*";F2)-1)+LEFT(F3;FIND("*";F3)-1)+LEFT(F4;FIND("*";F4)-1

Try this formula:

=SUM(1*LEFT(F1:F4;FIND("*";F1:F4)-1))

Note: This is an array formula that should be entered by
CTRL+SHIFT+ENTER rather than just ENTER.

Hope this helps / Lars-Åke