Using a range of dates to add data in a different column?

[Outraged]

I need to sum a range in a column based on the date in another column:
A B
1 Date Hours
2 05--Dec-26 7.2
3 05--Dec-29 6.8
4 06--Jan-01 2.1
5 06--Jan-12 3.3

essentially, i want to say "if the date in A is in Dec 05, add the hours in B that correspond to Dec 05". so, in another cell, in another sheet, i would get:

A B
1 Dec 05 14.0
2 Jan 06 5.4

-Carl Eubanks

[rocket0612]

=SUMPRODUCT(--($A$1:$A$500=DATE),$B$1:$B$500)

I think it would be somthing along these lines, sum column A that equals to the date (you will need to reference a cell with that date (eg put dec05 in c1) and then it will add all in column B that meet this

[Outraged]

maybe i am using the DATE in the wrong manner, but this doesnt seem to be working. even if i use and exact date [to include the day, just to see if i get any results].

I was hoping i could do this without adding another cell [i.e. a reference cell] that has only the month and year. Would some sort of IF statement work when referencing a column header? i.e. IF "Date" = Jan 06, then add the cells in column "Hours" where "Date" = Jan 06.

[the format of Date is yy--mmm-dd and the actual data is 1/1/2006]

I hope I am explaining myself how I want to.

-Carl Eubanks