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To sum absolute values in Excel, use the SUM function and add the ABS function as an argument. This will add the absolute value of each cell within the range that you specify. For example, the formula =SUM(ABS(A1:A10)) will sum the absolute values of the cells A1 through A10.
You can use the following basic formula to calculate the sum of a range of absolute values in Excel:
=SUM(ABS(A2:A15))
This particular formula calculates the sum of absolute values in the range A2:A15.
The following example shows how to use this formula in practice.
Example: How to Sum Absolute Values in Excel
Suppose we have the following list of values in Excel:
We can type the following formula into cell C1 to calculate the sum of the absolute values in the range A2:A15:
=SUM(ABS(A2:A15))
The following screenshot shows how to use this formula in practice:
From the output we can see that the sum of the absolute values in the range A2:A15 is 64.
We can confirm this is correct by manually calculating the sum of each absolute value in the range:
Sum of Absolute Values = 4 + 3 + 10 + 1 + 9 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 6 + 7 + 2 + 4 + 4 + 5 = 64.
This matches the value calculated by our formula.
How the Formula Works
The ABS() function in Excel calculates the absolute value of a given number.
- For example, the absolute value of -3 is 3.
The SUM() function in Excel calculates the sum of a range of numbers.
By using the formula SUM(ABS(A2:A15)) we first convert each value in the range A2:A15 to a positive number, then we calculate the sum of all of the positive numbers.