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I'd like to sum all the values in a column starting from a certain minimum value, but I don't want to give an upper bound because any value in the table will be appropriate for summing (minus the header of course) and I'd like to do it the "right" way instead of summing A2:A65535.

Is this possible?

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4 Answers 4

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84

Just leave off the row numbers:

=SUM(A:A)

Note that this expression cannot be placed in column A (that would cause an endless recursive summation which Excel won't allow).

If you instead wanted to sum all of the rows in column A above the current row (say 51) you could do this:

=SUM(A$1:A50)

If you ever move the cell that holds that expression it would change the A50 to whatever is above the current cell while keeping the starting point of the summation (A1) the same.

The same thing can be done if the total is kept above the summed cells in the current row (say row 1):

=SUM(A2:A$51)
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  • 3
    So you have to do either an entire column, or both a non-inclusive lower bound with an explicit upper bound? In my case, I'd like to do a mix of the two =SUM(A$1:A) but it doesn't seem to work. In any case, summing the entire column ignores the header and sums my column, so I'll mark this as an answer. Thanks!
    – bwerks
    Commented May 18, 2010 at 13:37
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    When summing, text should be ignored so as long as your sum is stored in a different column =SUM(A:A) should work fine.
    – Trey Hunner
    Commented May 18, 2010 at 16:05
  • Note that if you have a blank line beneath the header then you will get an error with SUM(A:A). Removing the blank row will get it to work.
    – ChrisB
    Commented May 7, 2013 at 10:54
  • yessssssssssssss
    – Brock Hensley
    Commented Jul 23, 2013 at 22:44
  • So how would you do this while putting the expression in column A? Or is it impossible?
    – user3932000
    Commented Nov 27, 2017 at 6:54
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In the case of Google Spreadsheets you can do the following:

=SUM(C4:C)

It will sum all rows in C column starting from the 4th row.

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  • This answer is incorrect. Excel will not accept the C for the second part of the range reference when the first specifies a specific cell. The reference is illogical: My range is C4 to C what?
    – I say Reinstate Monica
    Commented Nov 22, 2014 at 21:43
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    Sorry. I thought it is about Google Spreadsheets, where it works. My mistake.
    – Michal Felski
    Commented Nov 22, 2014 at 22:35
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    Funny, this is what i needed! Thx for the effort. Google Spreadsheets example.
    – animaacija
    Commented Jun 7, 2015 at 10:42
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    I needed this for Google Spreadsheets actually so this helped me.
    – Hanna
    Commented Oct 27, 2015 at 0:03
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    This answer is perfect except it answers to the wrong question! I am suprised that it's 2020 and google still doesn't doc this frequently used function well. Maybe you should consider creating a standalone question for this and answer it yourself.
    – Tim Wu
    Commented Oct 13, 2020 at 21:11
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In my case the fields I didn't want to include in the range actually did have numbers in them. I was stumped until I figured out that you can just sum the entire column and then simply subtract the fields you don't want:

=(SUM($B:$B)-SUM($B$1:$B$6))

Where the first six rows of column B are numbers but not relevant to the data I want summed, and column B contains an indefinite number of rows of information.

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2

I wanted to sum C2:C∞ and used a strange solution:

I placed the formula =SUM(C:C) inside B1, then used merge cells command to merge B1 and C1. Result was like this:

Excel sum A2 to A∞

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  • You greyed out because it's personal. But now I don't even understand what you want to say. What's the point of answering like that?
    – rafee
    Commented Oct 31, 2018 at 1:48
  • I take back my comment. I totally misunderstood, my bad.
    – rafee
    Commented Oct 31, 2018 at 23:46

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