The Excel Database Functions are designed to assist you when working with an Excel database.
A database typically takes the form of a large table of data, where each row in the table stores an individual record. Each column in the spreadsheet table stores a different field (or type of information) for each record.
The database functions perform basic operations, such as count, max, min, etc, but they enable the user to specify criteria, so that the operation is performed on selected records only. Other records in the database are ignored.
The Excel Dsum function calculates the sum of a field (column) in a database for selected records, that satisfy user-specified criteria.
The function is very similar to the Excel Sumifs function, which was first introduced in Excel 2007.
The syntax of the Excel Dsum function is:
where the arguments are:
| database | - | A range of cells containing the database. The top row of the database should specify the field names. | ||||
| field | - |
The field (column) within the database, that is to be summed. This can either be a field number, or can be the field name (i.e. the header in the top row of the database) encased in quotes (e.g. "Area", "Quarter", etc). |
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| criteria | - |
A range of cells that contain the criteria, to specify which records should be included in the calculation. The range can include one or more criteria, which are presented as a field name in one cell and the condition for that field in the cell below. E.g.
|
Wildcards
The Excel Database functions allow the following wildcards to be used in text-related criteria:
? - matches any single character
* - matches any sequence of characters
(If you actually want to find the ? or * character, type the ~ symbol before this character in your search).
E.g. the condition "a*e" will match all cells containing a text string beginning with "a" and ending in "e".The criteria supplied beneath each field heading can be either:
Note that the Excel database functions are not case sensitive. So, for example, the criteria ="South" will be satisfied by cells containing the text "South" or "south".
| A | B | C | D | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Quarter | Area | Sales Rep. | Sales |
| 2 | 1 | North | Jeff | $223,000 |
| 3 | 1 | North | Chris | $125,000 |
| 4 | 1 | South | Carol | $456,000 |
| 5 | 1 | South | Tina | $289,000 |
| 6 | 2 | North | Jeff | $322,000 |
| 7 | 2 | North | Chris | $340,000 |
| 8 | 2 | South | Carol | $198,000 |
| 9 | 2 | South | Tina | $222,000 |
| 10 | 3 | North | Jeff | $310,000 |
| 11 | 3 | North | Chris | $250,000 |
| 12 | 3 | South | Carol | $460,000 |
| 13 | 3 | South | Tina | $395,000 |
| 14 | 4 | North | Jeff | $261,000 |
| 15 | 4 | North | Chris | $389,000 |
| 16 | 4 | South | Carol | $305,000 |
| 17 | 4 | South | Tina | $188,000 |
The following examples are based on the above simple database on the right, which stores the sales figures for four sales representatives, working in the North or South area, over the four quarters of a year.
In the example below, the Dsum function is used to calculate the total sales in quarters 3 & 4, in the "North" area. The criteria are specified in cells F1 - G2 and the Dsum formula is shown in cell F3.
| F | G | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Quarter | Area |
| 2 | >2 | North |
| 3 | =DSUM( A1:D17, "Sales", F1:G2 ) | |
The above Dsum function calculates the sum of the values in cells D10, D11, D14 & D15, and therefore returns the value $1,210,000.
In the example below, the Dsum function is used to calculate the total sales in quarter 3, by sales reps with names beginning with the letter "C". Again, the criteria are specified in cells F1 - G2 and the Dsum formula is shown in cell F3.
| F | G | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Quarter | Sales Rep. |
| 2 | 3 | C* |
| 3 | =DSUM( A1:D17, "Sales", F1:G2 ) | |
The above Dsum function sums the values in cells D11 and D12 and so returns the value $710,000.
Note that, in the above two examples, instead of typing in "Sales" for the field argument, we could have simply used the number 4 (to denote the 4th column of the database).
For further examples of the Excel Dsum function, see the Microsoft Office website.