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Using SUM for a whole Column

Excel Analysis Workflow

1

Clean the Data

Remove duplicates, handle blanks, normalize text.

2

Add Helper Columns

Compute derived values you'll analyze on.

3

Build Pivot Tables

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4

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Learn how to use SUM for a whole Column.

When you're building your worksheets, it's best to have your formulas and functions in place, so that as soon as you start adding records, your counts, sums, and other calculations get right to work.

Because I don't know how many registrations I'll get for this event, I can't forecast how many cells to include in this sum of the Amount Paid column.

This isn't a problem, however, because I can sum the whole column, all the way down to the 1,048.576th row, with just a click and a keyboard shortcut.

So I start my sum as usual, and then I click in the first cell that will contain registration amounts in the worksheet.

Then, rather than dragging down to select the range, I just press CTRL + the down arrow, and the whole column is selected.

I type the closing parenthesis, and press ENTER, and the formula is created.

To test it, I just type a few numbers in the cells, and we see the total update.

Easy!