another way,
assuming that date are in Column A and value in Column B,
enter the date you want to lookup in C2 and
copy and paste either of these array formula in D2, confirm by Ctrl, Shift &
Enter
Excel will automatically put a curly bracket {.....} wrap around the formula,
note that you do not need to type the curly bracket, if you have press Enter
accidentally after entering the formula, just go back to the cell and in
edit mode
reenter again.

=SUM((--$A$2:$A$5=C2)*--($B$2:$B$5))

or

=SUM(IF($A$2:$A$5=C2,$B$2:$B$5,0))

HTH

--
Pls click on the Yes button below if this posting is helpful.

Thank You

cheers, francis









"LuvJ1s" wrote:

I am attempting to add a formula in a separate spreadsheet that counts the
value in existing cells if the row begins with a certain date. For example,
I would like the spreadsheet to return the 'Amount' received on 12/31/2008
(15.00) and disregard all other dates.

Date Amount
12/31/2008 5.00
12/31/2008 10.00
1/1/2009 2.00
1/1/2009 4.00
1/2/2009 1.00