Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Excel versions: 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. If you are using a later version (Excel 2007 or later), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for later versions of Excel, click here: Summing Digits in a Value.
If you have a cell that contains a value, you may want to devise a way to add together all the digits in the value. For instance, if a cell contains the value 554, you might want to determine the sum of 5+5+4, which is 14.
There are several ways you can approach this task. (Doesn't that always seem the way in Excel?) The first is to use a formula that relies on several functions:
Please Note:
This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Excel versions: 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. If you are using a later version (Excel 2007 or later), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for later versions of Excel, click here: 
=SUMPRODUCT(--MID(A1,ROW(INDIRECT("1:" & LEN(A1))),1))
This regular formula will sum the digits in any integer value (in cell A1) in a simple, elegant manner. This is not the only possible formula, however. The following is an array formula (terminated by pressing Ctrl+Shift+Enter) version of the same formula:
=SUM(1*MID(A1,ROW(INDIRECT("1:"&LEN(A1))),1))
Either of these formulas work fine if the value in A1 is a positive whole number. If there are any non-digit characters in the number (such as a negative sign or a decimal point), then the formulas return a #VALUE! error.
You can also use a user-defined function to return the desired sum. The following macro steps through each digit in the referenced cell and calculates a total. This value is then returned to the user:
Function AddDigits(Number As Long) As Integer
Dim i As Integer
Dim Sum As Integer
Dim sNumber As String
sNumber = CStr(Number)
For i = 1 To Len(sNumber)
Sum = Sum + Mid(sNumber, i, 1)
Next
AddDigits = Sum
End Function
To use this function, just use a formula such as =AddDigits(A1) in a cell. An even more compact user-defined function (invoked in the same manner) is the following:
Function AddDigits(ByVal N As Long) As Integer
Do While N >= 1
AddDigits = AddDigits + N Mod 10
N = Int(N / 10)
Loop
End Function
Unlike the earlier macro, this version doesn't convert the cell contents to a string in order to process it. Instead, it steps through each digit of the value, stripping off the last digit and adding it to the total.
Note:
ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (2424) applies to Microsoft Excel 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. You can find a version of this tip for the ribbon interface of Excel (Excel 2007 and later) here: Summing Digits in a Value.
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2021-04-11 05:30:20
Willy Vanhaelen
Here is a user defined function that works with negative numbers and numbers with decimals as well:
Function AddDigits(Number As String) As Integer
Dim i As Integer, Char As String
For i = 1 To Len(Number)
Char = Mid(Number, i, 1)
If IsNumeric(Char) Then AddDigits = AddDigits + Char
Next
End Function
2021-04-10 09:40:38
Roy
You can also use that approach for stripping out non-numeric characters leaving you with a numeric-only string, or value:
=VALUE(TEXTJOIN("",TRUE,IFERROR(VALUE(MID(A1,SEQUENCE(LEN(A1)),1)),"")))
So "D-55a4" becomes just "554" or just the string "554" if you don't apply the VALUE() fucntion at the end. "-8" becomes "8": you won't retain the idea something was a negative number, but since the digits were your focus, not their values, that isn't an issue.
Side note: if you ever have problems with ABS(), or more likely INT() and related functions, not returning a value axatly as you'd like, it could help you control that better (or not, depending on what your desire is).
Works nicely for stripping non-printing characters from what should be numerical information. Lots of imported data suffers from those and CLEAN() is usually useless for that problem. (Very much a "it was useful in simpler times" kind of function.)
It works with anything Excel builds VALUE() to recognize (just the usual for us in the US, but some other country builds might have VALUE() fucntions that recognize more characters as numerals, and so...).
2021-04-10 09:24:41
Roy
The following formula looks at the presented value character by character, applies the VALUE() as a simple test of each being a numerica character, uses IFERROR() to return a 0 to SUM() if any character is not a numeral, and taking the result if a character is, letting SUM() total them all up:
=SUM(IFERROR(VALUE(MID(A1,SEQUENCE(LEN(A1)),1)),0)) (for an imput presented in cell A1)
So only numerals are added, no matter what, and no complications. No macros needed. Something either succeeds inside VALUE() and is added, or does NOT succeed and is effectively ignored by the value used for it being 0.
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