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The Google Sheets Query function can be used to sum multiple columns in a spreadsheet. It allows you to select the columns to be summed, as well as the criteria for the calculation. This can be useful for quickly and easily calculating a sum of multiple columns in a spreadsheet, such as the total sales of a particular product over a certain period of time.
You can use the following syntax to calculate the sum of multiple columns within a Google Sheets query:
=QUERY(A1:D8,"select A,B+C+D",1)
This particular example will return the values in column A along with a column that shows the sum of values in columns B, C, and D.
We also specify a 1 to indicate that there is 1 header row at the top of the dataset.
The following example shows how to use this formula in practice.
Example: Sum Multiple Columns in Google Sheets Query
Suppose we have the following dataset in Google Sheets that shows the total points scored by various basketball teams during different games:
We can use the following query to return each team name along with the sum of points scored in all three of their games:
=QUERY(A1:D8,"select A,B+C+D",1)
The following screenshot shows how to use this query in practice:
From the results we can see:
- The Mavs scored a total of 302 points across all three games.
- The Warriors scored a total of 293 points across all three games.
- The Lakers scored a total of 293 points across all three games.
And so on.
Note that we could also use the to give a specific label to the results of the summed columns:
=QUERY(A1:D8,"select A,B+C+D label B+C+D 'Total Points'",1)
The three columns that we summed together now have a “Total Points” label.
The following tutorials explain how to perform other common tasks in Google Sheets