How to sumif with multiple range and single sumrange

Hi,

great website... heres my issue...

A B C D .... AZ
3 X U Z ...
7 Z T D ...
9 Y X C ...
...

in a separate cell, i want to put a formula that will sum col A whenever there is a row in the cols B:AZ that contains "X".

the example above would give me 9+3 = 12... I would then be able to do a drop down for all of the values... eg Y=9, Z =3+7 = 10, etc

i tried sumif(B:AZ,"X",A:A)... but it would not add the 9 for the "X" in col C

if someone can do a simple spreadsheet to show me or any ideas that would be great...

please let me know if you need more clarification...

thx

helpPlease!

What happens if "X" occurs more than once in a single row? Do you want to sum column A for each occurrence or only once?

thanks dominic... worked out

a prerequisite is that X cannot appear more than once in a row... however if that happens then col A would sum twice