Alphabetical sequential list in excel spreadsheet

Question

I am trying to create the following formulas

sum(a2:h2), sum(i2:p2),sum(q2:x2);sum(y2:af2) in adjacent cells, in MS excel 2010.

I could get the series working up to third term using char and code functions in MS excel. Such as "i" comes from doing =CHAR(2*CODE(B3)-CODE(B2)+1) assuming that cells B2 has "a" and B3 has "h".

But this approach stops when the list runs out of alphabet - using th same formula leads to non-alphabetical characters.

Any help or nudge in right direction is welcome.

Answer 1

One option to get the correct results is to use this formula in A4 copied down

=SUM(OFFSET($A$2:$H$2,0,(ROWS(A$4:A4)-1)*8))

or if you want to copy across use this version, also starting at A4

=SUM(OFFSET($A$2:$H$2,0,(COLUMNS($A4:A4)-1)*8))

Change the A4 part depending on start cell

Of course this doesn't explicitly tell you which cell are being summed but you'll get the correct results.....