SUM

Quirk found

Category: Math and trigonometry · Last tested 2026-09-01

Real compatibility results for the SUM function: executed in Excel for the web, Google Sheets and LibreOffice Calc, with desktop Excel behavior from Microsoft’s official documentation (we do not run desktop Excel — Excel for the web is a different application and is executed separately). Syntax and links to that documentation are below.

Support matrix

Engine	Documented	Live-tested	Verdict
Excel (desktop)	Yes	No — documented only	n/a
Excel for the web	—	Yes (recalc, 2026-09-01)	Supported, behaves as documented
Google Sheets	Yes	Yes (Drive import, 2026-08-29)	Supported, behaves as documented
LibreOffice Calc	Yes	Yes (25.8.7.3, 2026-07-29)	Quirk found

LibreOffice version history

We executed the same test cases under each LibreOffice release to show exactly when SUM’s support changed — not documentation claims, real results.

LibreOffice version	Verdict	Tested
24.2.0.3	Quirk found	2026-08-29
24.8.7.2	Quirk found	2026-08-29
25.2.0.3	Quirk found	2026-08-29
25.8.7.3	Quirk found	2026-07-29

Why isn't SUM working in LibreOffice?

SUM exists in LibreOffice 25.8.7.3, but it is not a drop-in match for Excel — our executed tests found real behavioral differences (detailed in the test results on this page). If a formula that works in Excel or Google Sheets misbehaves in LibreOffice, compare your usage against the failing cases above before assuming your data is wrong.

Discovered quirks

=SUM(1,"2",3) on LibreOffice Calc returned #VALUE!, but the documented/expected result is 6.
Provenance
Contrast with SUM_text_in_cell_reference_ignored: Excel coerces literal string arguments that look like numbers when they are typed directly into the formula, but does not do so for text found inside a range reference; MISMATCH vs expected: expected 6, got '#VALUE!'

Executed test cases

Excel for the web (executed 2026-09-01 via OneDrive recalculation)

These values come from Excel for the web, not from desktop Excel. They are two different implementations of the calculation engine, and this run measured only the web one: the corpus was uploaded to OneDrive as .xlsx, recalculated by Excel for the web on open, and downloaded again for readback. Excel for the web is a rolling service with no pinnable version, so the run is identified by its date. Where a value here disagrees with the Expected column — which is Microsoft’s documentation of the desktop product — we cannot tell you whether the web engine diverges from the desktop one or the documentation is wrong about both, because we do not run desktop Excel.

Formula	Description	Result	Expected	Verdict
=SUM(A1:A5)	Basic sum of a contiguous numeric range	15	15	Matched
=SUM(A1:A3)	A text value stored in a referenced cell is IGNORED by SUM, not coerced to a number, even though it looks numeric	4	4 Provenance A2 holds the text string '2' (not the number 2); SUM over a range skips text cells entirely, so the total is 1+3=4, not 6	Matched
=SUM(1,"2",3)	A numeric-looking TEXT LITERAL passed directly as a function argument (not via a cell reference) IS coerced to a number, unlike the same text sitting in a referenced cell	6	6 Provenance Contrast with SUM_text_in_cell_reference_ignored: Excel coerces literal string arguments that look like numbers when they are typed directly into the formula, but does not do so for text found inside a range reference	Matched
=SUM(A1:A3)	Summing an entirely empty range returns 0, not an error	0	0	Matched

Google Sheets (executed 2026-08-29 via Drive import)

Google Sheets is a rolling service with no pinnable version, so this run is identified by its date. The corpus was imported to Drive as .xlsx, recalculated by Sheets, and exported back for readback.

Formula	Description	Result	Expected	Verdict
=SUM(A1:A5)	Basic sum of a contiguous numeric range	15	15	Matched
=SUM(A1:A3)	A text value stored in a referenced cell is IGNORED by SUM, not coerced to a number, even though it looks numeric	4	4 Provenance A2 holds the text string '2' (not the number 2); SUM over a range skips text cells entirely, so the total is 1+3=4, not 6	Matched
=SUM(1,"2",3)	A numeric-looking TEXT LITERAL passed directly as a function argument (not via a cell reference) IS coerced to a number, unlike the same text sitting in a referenced cell	6	6 Provenance Contrast with SUM_text_in_cell_reference_ignored: Excel coerces literal string arguments that look like numbers when they are typed directly into the formula, but does not do so for text found inside a range reference	Matched
=SUM(A1:A3)	Summing an entirely empty range returns 0, not an error	0	0	Matched

LibreOffice Calc 25.8.7.3 (tested 2026-07-29)

Formula	Description	Result	Expected	Verdict
=SUM(A1:A5)	Basic sum of a contiguous numeric range	15	15	Matched
=SUM(A1:A3)	A text value stored in a referenced cell is IGNORED by SUM, not coerced to a number, even though it looks numeric	4	4 Provenance A2 holds the text string '2' (not the number 2); SUM over a range skips text cells entirely, so the total is 1+3=4, not 6	Matched
=SUM(1,"2",3)	A numeric-looking TEXT LITERAL passed directly as a function argument (not via a cell reference) IS coerced to a number, unlike the same text sitting in a referenced cell	#VALUE!	6 Provenance Contrast with SUM_text_in_cell_reference_ignored: Excel coerces literal string arguments that look like numbers when they are typed directly into the formula, but does not do so for text found inside a range reference	Mismatch
=SUM(A1:A3)	Summing an entirely empty range returns 0, not an error	0	0	Matched

Docs & syntax

Excel (desktop): official documentation
Google Sheets: official documentation
LibreOffice Calc: official documentation

Related how-to recipes

Where SUM behaves differently

SUM(1,"2",3) returns 6 in Excel but #VALUE! in LibreOffice
Excel adds a number typed as text inside SUM's arguments and executed Google Sheets returns 6 too; LibreOffice returns #VALUE! for the identical formula. Why they differ and how to migrate.

SUM