formulas

[kcmo53]

i just took a class on excel, we learned a bit of formulas so now a day later i am fooling around and trying the new things i learned, however i am getting different results.
i made up a quick fake spread sheet, consist of amount of money a individual makes each quarter, i was trying to get the sum of all 4 through a formula.
so i did "=sum" double click to activate, then clicked on cell E2 and dragged to H2, the formula bar showed it acknowledged those cells.. so i hit enter. the math was correct, it did give me the sum how ever a green triangle is in the corner saying the formula had an error.
yet if do =sum(e2,f2,g2,h2) and hit enter it gives me the same number, math is correct but this time no green triangle. no error in this formula.
what am i doing wrong on the dragging and clicking on cells? why do i get an error yet when typed in there is no error?

 

[63falcondude]

Your formula should look like =SUM(E2:H2) which is the same as =SUM(E2,F2,G2,H2)

If I had to guess, I would say that it was telling you that the formula you used differs from surrounding formulas. Not an error with your formula, more of a warning.

 

[kcmo53]

i found out what it was, i had fake SSN in a column next to my quarterly sums (practice the action of removing items from left and right of cells), since my 1st quarter and SSN columns where right next to each other with no empty column separating them. the error was notifying me there were more rows of numbers connected to selected cells, that could be added to sum. once i inserted a new column and had an empty column, the formula worked just fine after that with no error