Running Totals

[edmdas]

I have to keep a record of the running totals of school house points for each week. The problem is that teachers are very lazy and don't record data every week so I have many blank cells which my current formula can't cope with. I've tried using N/A but it doesn’t seem to work? (Have thought about threats of violence but would probably lose my job )
I’m if there is no data (blank or 0) then I need it to keep the same total in the cell as the previous week and so on until new data is entered and updates the total.
I have attached a simplified copy:
Teachers enter points in the HP sheet, the Running Totals sheet (TAB) contains the formula.
Any suggestions appreciated, I just know it’s going to be simple and I will feel stupid!
Thanks
Dave

[DonkeyOte]

Based on my interpretation of your requirements I would suggest

C3: =SUM(B3,HP!C3)
copied across matrix C3:I33

[edmdas]

It’s simple and it works!
Brill thanks so much.

But not sure how, could I ask why it refers to B3 a text cell and still gets it right? I can see how the next column along sorts of works, I've missed something basic here about formulas haven’t I?

If you have time an explanation would be great, Thank you for this.

|Dave

[DonkeyOte]

The SUM function will only sum numeric values.

Example

A1: Apple

=A1+1 -> #VALUE!

=SUM(A1,1) -> 1

This is a good demo as to why SUM is more useful then simple +, the latter will generate #VALUE! because it is explicitly coercing "Apple" to a number which will fail whereas SUM will simply ignore the text value (ie treat as 0).

[edmdas]

OK I've got that now, thanks

I can see why my first formula didn't work as well, I was trying hard to get round the non-numeric cell. This is a very useful thing to know!

Thanks again for your quick and helpful response.

I can leave the baseball bats in the cupboard after all

Dave