sumif with the criterion of what to sum in a different cell

[essta]

Thank you so much for the opportunity to ask questions of the experts (I hope my Q wont be too primitive ). I am summing a column of numbers, using sumif, to only sum the pay of the hourly workers. I typed in the function to do that, and believe it or not it works. But I need the user to be able to choose what to sum by clicking a cell that specifies the criterion of what to sum eg. hourly or salaried. If I rewrite the function each time replacing the criterion, it works, but it won't do. If the choice (criteria) of what they want totaled is located in some cells outside the table, I need to bring that choice into the function. It does work if I use a cell reference ie j4 instead of "hourly" but I still need the j4 or j5 to get into the function.Thank you so much!Essta

 

[kweaver]

In G6, run Data Validation and select "List" and then type your two options, separated by a comma.