Why does a sumif use double speech marks

Hello,
I have created a sumif formulas as follows:

=SUMIF(E10:E21,">10",E10:E21)

My question is why do you have to have the double speech marks around the >10?
This doesn't seem to be needed in other formulas.
Any ideas out there?
Thanks.

Best I can give you is that MS programmed it that way. It's nothing you're
doing wrong.

From the help:
SUMIF(range,criteria,sum_range)
Range is the range of cells you want evaluated.

Criteria is the criteria in the form of a number, expression, or text
that defines which cells will be added. For example, criteria can be
expressed as 32, "32", ">32", "apples".


--
Ken Puls
www.officearticles.com



"owl37" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> Hello,
> I have created a sumif formulas as follows:
>
> =SUMIF(E10:E21,">10",E10:E21)
>
> My question is why do you have to have the double speech marks around the
> >10?
> This doesn't seem to be needed in other formulas.
> Any ideas out there?
> Thanks.
>