Which formula correctly calculates the total expenses for the Office Expense category using the named ranges Category and Cost?

Which formula correctly calculates the total expenses for the Office Expense category using the named ranges Category and Cost?

• A. =SUMIF(Category, "Office Expense", Cost)
• B. =SUMIF(Cost, "Office Expense", Category)
• C. =SUMIF("Office Expense", Category, Cost)
• D. =SUMIF(Category, Cost, "Office Expense")

Answer: (A)

This question tests how to use SUMIF to sum values conditionally based on a category. SUMIF takes three parts: the range to test, the criteria, and the sum_range. Here, you want to check the Category values for the text "Office Expense" and sum the corresponding Cost values. So the formula is: =SUMIF(Category, "Office Expense", Cost). This adds every Cost where the Category equals Office Expense; if there are multiple matches, they all contribute to the total, and if there are none, the result is 0. The other setups don’t fit because they swap the ranges or apply the criteria to the wrong data. Testing Cost against "Office Expense" and then summing Category doesn’t make sense for this goal, and using "Office Expense" as a range or misaligning the ranges leads to invalid results.

This question tests how to use SUMIF to sum values conditionally based on a category. SUMIF takes three parts: the range to test, the criteria, and the sum_range. Here, you want to check the Category values for the text "Office Expense" and sum the corresponding Cost values. So the formula is: =SUMIF(Category, "Office Expense", Cost). This adds every Cost where the Category equals Office Expense; if there are multiple matches, they all contribute to the total, and if there are none, the result is 0.

The other setups don’t fit because they swap the ranges or apply the criteria to the wrong data. Testing Cost against "Office Expense" and then summing Category doesn’t make sense for this goal, and using "Office Expense" as a range or misaligning the ranges leads to invalid results.