I have 7 categories, each category has 5 possible scores. I want to calculate
the sum of each possible combination. Is there a way to do this in Excel?

My grid looks like this:
JobKnowl 15 12 9 6 3
CallAcc 15 12 9 6 3
CallQual 15 12 9 6 3
JobAcc 5 4 3 2 1
IPSkill 10 8 6 4 2
Attend 20 16 12 8 4
Punct 20 16 12 8 4

"cursednomore" wrote:
I have 7 categories, each category has 5 possible scores.
I want to calculate the sum of each possible combination.
Is there a way to do this in Excel?

I would write a VBA subroutine. But ....

My grid looks like this:
JobKnowl 15 12 9 6 3
CallAcc 15 12 9 6 3
CallQual 15 12 9 6 3
JobAcc 5 4 3 2 1
IPSkill 10 8 6 4 2
Attend 20 16 12 8 4
Punct 20 16 12 8 4

The sum of which possible combinations? Combinations of 7
taking only one from each category? Combinations of 7 taking
one or more from each category? Something else altogether?

" wrote:

"cursednomore" wrote:
I have 7 categories, each category has 5 possible scores.
I want to calculate the sum of each possible combination.
Is there a way to do this in Excel?

I would write a VBA subroutine. But ....

My grid looks like this:
JobKnowl 15 12 9 6 3
CallAcc 15 12 9 6 3
CallQual 15 12 9 6 3
JobAcc 5 4 3 2 1
IPSkill 10 8 6 4 2
Attend 20 16 12 8 4
Punct 20 16 12 8 4

The sum of which possible combinations? Combinations of 7
taking only one from each category? Combinations of 7 taking
one or more from each category? Something else altogether?


Sorry for not being clearer, 1 possible choice from each category.

"cursednomore" wrote:
" wrote:
I have 7 categories, each category has 5 possible scores.
I want to calculate the sum of each possible combination.
[....]
JobKnowl 15 12 9 6 3
CallAcc 15 12 9 6 3
CallQual 15 12 9 6 3
JobAcc 5 4 3 2 1
IPSkill 10 8 6 4 2
Attend 20 16 12 8 4
Punct 20 16 12 8 4

The sum of which possible combinations? Combinations of 7
taking only one from each category?
[....]
Sorry for not being clearer, 1 possible choice from each category.

I take that to mean "combinations of 7 taking one from each
category". Unfortunately, that still is not specific enough.

Hint: Some examples and counter-examples might avoid
further questions. For example ....

Do you truly want the sum of "each" combination --
ostensibly as many as 5^7 = 78125 results? Or do you
really want the sum of __all__ combinations -- one result?

And do you want to consider all 5^7 combinations, which
might include apparent "permutations" because of duplicate
numbers in some categories? Or do you really want unique
combinations of numbers?

For example, we could have the combinations {15,12,...}
and {12,15,...}. In the first case, we take 15 and 12 from
the JK and CA categories respectively. In the second case,
we take 12 and 15 from the JK and CA categories
respectively. This is not really a permutation, as you can
see if we prefix each number with the category it comes
from (e.g, JK15 and CA15).