What excel does when a + is added inside of a SUM function

Hi,

During a calculation I have made the following that, now I know it is wrong:
A1=1
A2=2
A3=3
A4=4

=sum(A1:A3+A4)
the result of this is 18 and I don't understand why.

Could someone explain why this is happening? This is the curiosity speaking as I understand that we should use the "," like this =sum(A1:A3,A4)

Thanks
Nuno

The way you wrote it will add A4 to each cell in the range, so you will actually be getting the SUM of (1+4), (2+4) AND (3+4).

Hope this helps.

Pete

If you use the "Evaluate formula" button on the formula tab you can step through the calculation to see what is happening.
In this case it's adding 4 to every value in A1:A3

Thanks so much for your replies! Cristal clear.

Glad to help & thanks for the feedback

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Pete