SUM ABS(col) not the same as SUM(col) ?

I have a long list of negative values. I sum them and get the figure -34368.83


I made a column next to it of the ABS() values of that column, so's I could remove the negative.

Then I copied that second column and pasted it for Values only.

So I have three column with the same numbers.

Column A the values are negative.
Column B the values are absolutes.
Column C the values are absolutes and without a formula.

Summing either of columns B or C gives the same value: but it is 42308.83 !

Lucky I saw the difference. What's the catch here?

Thank you for your help and apologies for my lack of self-help.

It is now sorted out. There were positive quantities in there. I didn't quite tell the truth when I said it should be all negative from the beginning. The bank statement downloads as negs for the drawings and positives for the pay ins to the account.

There being so few 'pay ins' and being such large amounts I thought I'd weeded them all out. Well, you know what thought did.

I finally did a bit of thinking instead of just screaming for help and realised I could search for the text that accompanies pay ins : "payment received, thank you". In a thousand transactions it was still fewer than fifty entries and I quickly went through them and found the missing culprit.

I haven't troubled you for nothing, though, I learned about that "SUMIF()" function. That was new to me.

thanks again,

regards,

ab