Excel 2007 : Formula's Not Computing?

[E6BAV8R]

Hello!

I'm not quite sure what I did, but while doing a lot of =SUMPRODUCT and =COUNTIF formulas, I just have managed to hit some kind of button combination to de-activate some default settings; as I mostly think it is tied to the 'Cell Category' to something non-standard, but which I have already attempted to change manually numerous times.

Anytime I try to use the SUMPRODUCT or COUNTIF formula to compute something very simple, and something I know is true, it always returns a '0' or'#VALUE' error. I've even copied and pasted basic examples from Excel Help, as well as copied and pasted the answer it tells you and it gives me a '0' (when it clearly isn't).

Any help? I know I screwed something stupid up!

Thanks

[Cutter]

How about posting your formulas or, better still, a sample of your file showing your formulas and your 'expected results'.

[E6BAV8R]

For example:

Column A:
Ford
Ford
Buick
Buick

The quick SUMPRODUCT formula I used to find out how many times 'Ford" is listed in Column A:

=SUMPRODUCT(A1:A10="Ford")

I can get it work to use comma's, but shouldn't the above work as well? It returns a 0.

[Cutter]

The quick formula would be:

=COUNTIF(A1:A10,"Ford")

The unnecessary formula would be:

=SUMPRODUCT(--(A1:A4="FORD"))

[E6BAV8R]

The quick formula would be:

=COUNTIF(A1:A10,"Ford")

The unnecessary formula would be:

=SUMPRODUCT(--(A1:A4="FORD"))

Yes, I know there is a quicker way. However, I couldn't even get a simple string to answer correctly, much less a formula with 10 more criteria involved.

Why would the '--' be necessary here?

[Cutter]

It is discussed here (a little more than halfway down the page):

http://www.xldynamic.com/source/xld.SUMPRODUCT.html