Hey!
This is maybe a stupid question but how can I go about using a normal ‘SUM’ like in Excel / Google Spreadsheet?
Normally, i will =SUM in a cell and select which ones or range I will like to perform the SUM (f.e. from C2:C14) but in Coda I can’t figure it out? Shouldn’t it be simple?
Hi Miguel,
Coda works very different to spreadsheets. A formula applies to a column, not to a cell.
Rather think of Coda tables as Access tables, rather than Excel sheets. Coda is a completely new product with a mixture of features from Access, Word and Excel.
Regards.
Piet
If you give a more specific use case we can throw together some examples of how you can sum different numbers! There are many different ways to do it depending on your use case
hey there! Thanks a lot @Piet_Strydom and @Scott_Collier-Weir ;
So, this is for a personal work project we have in my family and I want to build a Income/Expense report, very simple. I am a bit using Agile and I am really "starting something without knowing really the outcome 
"
As a side, another goal is to lear coda as I use it a lot on my actual work.
Anyway, i threw a quick table so you can help me out (and thanks again @Scott_Collier-Weir !)
As you can see, I just want to add the daily income/expense we are making and in the “Balance” table output the actual balance.
Changed the document itself! Take a look into the column formulas to see how I did it and feel free to write back if you have any questions!
I also changed your “Name” column in the Month to manually calculate based off your “date” input using the .MonthName() formula
Did you ever get a straight/clear answer to this because I’m wondering the same thing. I just want to add the numbers in a column and have the total listed at the bottom of the column.
So if column 9 has the following entries 3,4,7,10, how to I perform the operation 3+4+7+10 and get the sum at the bottom?
No one expects Coda to behave the same as Excel, which is why we’re using Coda instead of Excel, but how hard is it to perform that operation that instead of an answer you received platitudes. 
Did you check the document where Scott created the examples?
Redacted post entered in error.
Here is the formula from the document:
I have added another alternative, which is the following. This is in the same table, as opposed to the previous example which uses a summary table.
Redacted post entered in error.
can someone direct me to the docs please? I still have no clue how to do this I just want to add up numbers in specific cells and have a total in a cell of my choosing.
Hi Romero
Not sure what you mean here? You can click on the link to the doc in the post by Miguel above. It contains two different ways to get a sum of values.
Can you elaborate? Cell based formulas referencing other cells sounds more like an Excel topic. Formulas in Coda are column based, or alternatively canvas based.
Okay, so I guess I can’t do what I need to in Coda. I have some data in a table, and I wanted to add a few calculations at the bottom, like the total, profit margin, etc. I’m using Coda as a business planning tool and wanted to do some basic calculations on one of the pages.
Thanks for replying
Are you by any chance a colleague of Fiona? 
You can definitely do that and much more, just not the way you are used to. Coda works more like a database.
If you are interested in learning you can start here: Transitioning from Excel - Part 1: Layout | Coda Help Center
Learning this way of thinking will help you not only with Coda but with miriads if other tools.
Hope this helps,
Pablo
I think the problem for me is that you can’t use Coda formulas inside a cell, which makes displaying data a bit messy in my opinion. In the Coda docs, the solution seems to be moving the data and calculations you want outside the table. In my mind, a “table” is what you’d use in Google Sheets or Excel, so I was trying to use it the same way.
In my case, I have three cell items, and I want to have a unit cost next to them. In Google Sheets or Excel, this would be a super easy process of hitting “=” and doing your calculations. In Coda, I don’t think you can do this because you can’t use formulas inside a cell.
In spreadsheets the minimal unit is the cell, while in databases (and Coda) is the row. That means you cannot use different formulas within different ‘cells’ of a column, but in the great majority of cases it’s not necessary after restructuring a bit your data. All the apps you use in your phone and your computer run databases under the hood and not spreadsheets, because you can do so much more with the data once you adapt to this new way of thinking.
In your example you seem to want to create formulas with different percentages ‘hard-coded’ within it? Why not put those percentages in a separate column? Then the formula is just kg * percentage for all the rows.
The minimal unit being a column is the issue. I was just giving a basic example. In the case of my snapshot, using a column-based formula would work, but if you wanted to do something more complicated, you’d hit a roadblock. Sometimes, you want different formulas in different cells based on factors that aren’t easily expressed. If they allowed cell-based formulas, it would enable more complex operations. They even add a notice there, so they’re aware some people may want to edit things in a more advanced way.
Sorry, but you really are not being ‘advanced’. I guess they are forcing you to use Coda, it must be hell if you are not up to learning something new. Good luck.
Nah, nobody is forcing me. I’m a developer building a startup, and I want to support Coda. Column-based formulas are great, but the lack of cell-based formulas is limiting when you want to do more complex things, so I’m having to go to extreme lengths to work around it.
