Total the highest 4 values over multiple columns

[SloopJohnB]

I would to get the sum of the highest 4 values over 8 columns

total in E8 and the values are in H8 = 150, J8 = 76, L8 = 86, N8 = 73, P8 = 100, R8 = 98, T8 = 86, V8 = 98, X8 = 68 and Z8 = 100.

How can you sort out when there are 2 or more of the lower of the 4 highest are the same?

Thanks in advance.

[Glenn Kennedy]

One way:

=SUM(LARGE(H8:Z8,{1,2,3,4}))

what do you mean by: "How can you sort out when there are 2 or more of the lower of the 4 highest are the same?"???

[SloopJohnB]

Glenn thanks for the speedy reply.

There are other numbers in the other columns I only want the named column values to be totalled.

In the example the H8, P8, Z8 are be used but R8 & V8 have the same value of 98 so only one of these can be used to make up the total required.

I hope that explains it better.

[Glenn Kennedy]

The most important detail left out!!

an array formula:
=SUMPRODUCT(LARGE(IF(MOD(COLUMN($H$8:$Z$8)-COLUMN($H$8),2)=0,($H$8:$Z$8),0),{1,2,3,4}))

Array Formulae are a little different from ordinary formulae in that they MUST be confirmed in the FIRST CELL ONLY by pressing CTRL+SHIFT+ENTER to activate the array, not just ENTER. After that, the array can be dragged down as normal, to cover the desired range.

You will know the array is active when you see curly brackets { } - or "curly braces" for those of you in the USA, or "flower brackets" for those of you in India - appear around the outside of your formula. If you do not use CTRL+SHIFT+ENTER you will (almost always) get an error message or an incorrect answer. Press F2 on that cell and try again.

Don't type the curly brackets yourself - it won't work...

[Glenn Kennedy]

or:

=SUM(LARGE(IF(MOD(COLUMN($H$8:$Z$8)-COLUMN($H$8),2)=0,($H$8:$Z$8),0),{1,2,3,4}))

also array entered.