I have a table that was a dbf in a GIS. I have one column that is the name
of a soil type and another column is the area that the soil occupies. The
problem is, I have a bunch of rows for each soil type. I want to figure out
the sum total of the area that each soil type occupies without having to
manually sum each group. Some of the soil types have upwards of 20 rows that
need to be added together and others are only 1 row. So, is there a way that
an IF statement (or something else) can add up those areas that have the same
"soil type"? Or am I expecting too much? Any advice is much appreciated.
Thanks.

Sounds like you could use pivot tables for this, instructions here

http://peltiertech.com/Excel/Pivots/pivotstart.htm

another way would be to sort the table and use datasubtotals, then
select for each change in soil type

finally you could use

=SUMIF(A2:A100,"soil type",B2:B100)

where A2:A100 holds the soil type and B2:B100 the area

replace soil type with the de facto name or with a cell like

=SUMIF(A2:A100,C2,B2:B100)

and put the soil type in the cell


Regards,

Peo Sjoblom

www.nwexcelsolutions.com




Alpruett wrote:
I have a table that was a dbf in a GIS. I have one column that is the name
of a soil type and another column is the area that the soil occupies. The
problem is, I have a bunch of rows for each soil type. I want to figure out
the sum total of the area that each soil type occupies without having to
manually sum each group. Some of the soil types have upwards of 20 rows that
need to be added together and others are only 1 row. So, is there a way that
an IF statement (or something else) can add up those areas that have the same
"soil type"? Or am I expecting too much? Any advice is much appreciated.
Thanks.

Check out the help info for SumIf, you could also try Data-Subtotals and see
if that works for you.
--
-John Northwest11
Please rate when your question is answered to help us and others know what
is helpful.


"Alpruett" wrote:

I have a table that was a dbf in a GIS. I have one column that is the name
of a soil type and another column is the area that the soil occupies. The
problem is, I have a bunch of rows for each soil type. I want to figure out
the sum total of the area that each soil type occupies without having to
manually sum each group. Some of the soil types have upwards of 20 rows that
need to be added together and others are only 1 row. So, is there a way that
an IF statement (or something else) can add up those areas that have the same
"soil type"? Or am I expecting too much? Any advice is much appreciated.
Thanks.

Alpruett wrote:
I have a table that was a dbf in a GIS. I have one column that is the name
of a soil type and another column is the area that the soil occupies. The
problem is, I have a bunch of rows for each soil type. I want to figure out
the sum total of the area that each soil type occupies without having to
manually sum each group. Some of the soil types have upwards of 20 rows that
need to be added together and others are only 1 row. So, is there a way that
an IF statement (or something else) can add up those areas that have the same
"soil type"? Or am I expecting too much? Any advice is much appreciated.
Thanks.

Try using SUMIF function. Use excel help for the function it has got an
example also.

Regards.

These suggestions have been what I need, except I can't seem to drag the
formula through the thousands of rows that I have without having the range
and sum_range change. I want the criteria to change, but the ranges to stay
the same. Is this possible? I've tried setting the pattern for 5 rows that
only the criteria changes, but it still won't pick up on that. Thanks for
the help.
-Alison

"Peo Sjoblom" wrote:

Sounds like you could use pivot tables for this, instructions here

http://peltiertech.com/Excel/Pivots/pivotstart.htm

another way would be to sort the table and use datasubtotals, then
select for each change in soil type

finally you could use

=SUMIF(A2:A100,"soil type",B2:B100)

where A2:A100 holds the soil type and B2:B100 the area

replace soil type with the de facto name or with a cell like

=SUMIF(A2:A100,C2,B2:B100)

and put the soil type in the cell


Regards,

Peo Sjoblom

www.nwexcelsolutions.com




Alpruett wrote:
I have a table that was a dbf in a GIS. I have one column that is the name
of a soil type and another column is the area that the soil occupies. The
problem is, I have a bunch of rows for each soil type. I want to figure out
the sum total of the area that each soil type occupies without having to
manually sum each group. Some of the soil types have upwards of 20 rows that
need to be added together and others are only 1 row. So, is there a way that
an IF statement (or something else) can add up those areas that have the same
"soil type"? Or am I expecting too much? Any advice is much appreciated.
Thanks.

Use absolute references

$A$2:$A$200

will not change if copied down



Peo



Alpruett wrote:
These suggestions have been what I need, except I can't seem to drag the
formula through the thousands of rows that I have without having the range
and sum_range change. I want the criteria to change, but the ranges to stay
the same. Is this possible? I've tried setting the pattern for 5 rows that
only the criteria changes, but it still won't pick up on that. Thanks for
the help.
-Alison

"Peo Sjoblom" wrote:

Sounds like you could use pivot tables for this, instructions here

http://peltiertech.com/Excel/Pivots/pivotstart.htm

another way would be to sort the table and use datasubtotals, then
select for each change in soil type

finally you could use

=SUMIF(A2:A100,"soil type",B2:B100)

where A2:A100 holds the soil type and B2:B100 the area

replace soil type with the de facto name or with a cell like

=SUMIF(A2:A100,C2,B2:B100)

and put the soil type in the cell


Regards,

Peo Sjoblom

www.nwexcelsolutions.com




Alpruett wrote:
I have a table that was a dbf in a GIS. I have one column that is the name
of a soil type and another column is the area that the soil occupies. The
problem is, I have a bunch of rows for each soil type. I want to figure out
the sum total of the area that each soil type occupies without having to
manually sum each group. Some of the soil types have upwards of 20 rows that
need to be added together and others are only 1 row. So, is there a way that
an IF statement (or something else) can add up those areas that have the same
"soil type"? Or am I expecting too much? Any advice is much appreciated.
Thanks.

Anchor the ranges.

=SUMIF($A$2:$A$100,C2,$B$2:$B$100)


Gord Dibben MS Excel MVP

On Wed, 27 Dec 2006 14:05:02 -0800, Alpruett
wrote:

These suggestions have been what I need, except I can't seem to drag the
formula through the thousands of rows that I have without having the range
and sum_range change. I want the criteria to change, but the ranges to stay
the same. Is this possible? I've tried setting the pattern for 5 rows that
only the criteria changes, but it still won't pick up on that. Thanks for
the help.
-Alison

"Peo Sjoblom" wrote:

Sounds like you could use pivot tables for this, instructions here

http://peltiertech.com/Excel/Pivots/pivotstart.htm

another way would be to sort the table and use datasubtotals, then
select for each change in soil type

finally you could use

=SUMIF(A2:A100,"soil type",B2:B100)

where A2:A100 holds the soil type and B2:B100 the area

replace soil type with the de facto name or with a cell like

=SUMIF(A2:A100,C2,B2:B100)

and put the soil type in the cell


Regards,

Peo Sjoblom

www.nwexcelsolutions.com




Alpruett wrote:
I have a table that was a dbf in a GIS. I have one column that is the name
of a soil type and another column is the area that the soil occupies. The
problem is, I have a bunch of rows for each soil type. I want to figure out
the sum total of the area that each soil type occupies without having to
manually sum each group. Some of the soil types have upwards of 20 rows that
need to be added together and others are only 1 row. So, is there a way that
an IF statement (or something else) can add up those areas that have the same
"soil type"? Or am I expecting too much? Any advice is much appreciated.
Thanks.