Did you type it in or did you copy/paste it in? If you didn't copy/paste it,
then try doing that. The two minus signs (with no space between them)
effectively multiply a value by 1... in this particular case, that
multiplication forces Excel to convert the TRUE or FALSE value returned from
the logical comparison to a numerical equivalent (1 for TRUE and 0 for
FALSE) in order to perform the mathematical operation.

--
Rick (MVP - Excel)


"Karen" wrote in message
...
Hi Biff

Thank you very much. I am using Excel 2003. Tried the =sumproduct formula
but got €œ#value!€� error. Is there anything I must do with the €œ- -€œ?


"T. Valko" wrote:

If you're using Excel 2007:

Use cells to hold the criteria...

F2 = some month like Jan
G2 = some section like 3
H2 = some area like B

=SUMIFS(D2:D5,A2:A5,F2,B2:B5,G2,C2:C5,H2)

This one will work in any version:

=SUMPRODUCT(--(A2:A5=F2),--(B2:B5=G2),--(C2:C5=H2),D2:D5)

Format as [h]:mm

--
Biff
Microsoft Excel MVP


"Karen" wrote in message
...
I have a chart with 5 columns :

Month | Section | Area | Time
Jan | 1 | A | 00:30
Jan | 3 | B | 01:30
Feb | 2 | A | 00:30
Feb | 1 | B | 01:30

Need to find out the total time based on different month, Section,
Area.
That is, if I want the total time for Jan in Section 3, Area B what
formula
can I use?

Thank you.



.