My wife is a teacher and i have helped her create a grade book and attendance sheet. In the attendance sheet she wants to use 1=unexcused absence, 2=tardy, 3=excused absence, 4=pickedup. my question is how can i calculate the total of each at the end of each month. i need the late total to read all the #2's within the month and the unexcused total to read all the #1's within the month, ect. Toby..

You didn't give us any specifics as to how the spreadsheet is laid out, so it's hard to give a specific answer. May I suggest you look at some of the COUNT functions? For example, =COUNTIF(A1:A45,4) will give you the total count of the 4's in that range. There are other COUNT functions that might also be of use. If that is not what you are looking for, come on back with a little more detail and we'll see what we can do. BTW...it would help if you were a bit more specific in your subject line also. "Microsoft Excel" is pretty generic. Perhaps something like "Counting Values in Excel" or "Totaling Items in Excel" would be better. It helps readers who are scanning (or searching) the archives to get a better idea of what the post is about. Thanks!

Thanx for your suggestions. Im not sure how i can give you specifics on how the spreed sheet is laid out but i will try. She has student information in rows 1-10 colums A-AJ. she lists the months of the year in rows 14-37, taking up 2 rows per month, with the dates on top line and empty for input of the numbers on the bottom. so for example B14:AE14 are the numbered days for September. the total for late students would be in AG15, unexcused AH15, excused AI15, present AJ15. these fields are where i would need the total of each number imputed thru out the month. i did =COUNTIF(B15:AF15,1) in AG15, and inputed some random 1's and it still came back to 0. I hope this is more helpful than before. If i could email you the spreedsheet, or something else to show you what im talking about i will... Toby..

I put =COUNTIF(B15:AF15,1) in AG15. Actually copied it right from your post and pasted it in. I put a 1 in B15, T15, Z15, and AF15. AG15 shows 4.

your right, i had a typo. thanx so much for your help.... Toby..