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Sum if cells contain an asterisk in Excel

Author Siluvia Last modified

As we all know, the asterisk is a wildcard in Excel. To sum cells containing an asterisk that is regarded as a literal character not a wildcard, you can apply a formula based on the SUMIF function and the tilde (~).

How to sum if cells contain an asterisk in Excel?

As shown in the screenshot below, to sum sales in the range D5:D12 when the corresponding cell in range C5:C12 contains an asterisk, you can follow the steps below.

doc-sum-if-cells-contain-an-asterisk-1

Generic Formulas

=SUMIF(range,"*~**",[sum_range])

Arguments

Range: A range of cells which you want to evaluate if it contains an asterisk;
Sum_range: A range of cells that you want to sum.

How to use this formula?

Select a cell to output the result, copy or enter the below formula and press the Enter key.

=SUMIF(C5:C12,"*~**",D5:D12)

doc-sum-if-cells-contain-an-asterisk-2

Notes: The above formula sums cells no matter where the asterisk is in a cell.

To sum cells whose asterisk is at the end of the cell, you can apply a formula like this:

=SUMIF(C5:C12,"*~*",D5:D12)

doc-sum-if-cells-contain-an-asterisk-3

To sum cells whose asterisk is at the beginning of the cell, apply the formula below:

=SUMIF(C5:C12,"~**",D5:D12)

doc-sum-if-cells-contain-an-asterisk-4

Explanation of the formula

=SUMIF(C5:C12,"*~**",D5:D12)

ROW(E5:E14)-ROW(E5)+1:
> "*~**": To prevent Excel from treating asterisks as wildcards, you can add a tilde (~) before an asterisk to mark this asterisk as a literal character. Here the first and the last asterisk is a wildcard which means “one or more characters”; the asterisk after the tilde represents a literal asterisk.
The whole “*~**” means to match all cells containing an asterisk, no matter where the asterisk is in a cell.

Related functions

Excel SUMIF function
The Excel SUMIF function can help to sum cells based on one criterion

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