SumByFontColor function for LibreOffice Calc

SUMBYFONTCOLOR() Description

Many people use colors to indicate cells. Working with cell colors can make it easier to understand the data in the LO Calc workbook.

Unfortunately, LO Calc has no built-in functions for using cell colors as conditions in formulas. Building formulas that only count or sum cells of certain colors can get really cumbersome. This often results in complex formulas that are prone to error when making changes.

The SUMBYFONTCOLOR() function sums the values in cells that have a certain font color.

Main Features Functions SUMBYFONTCOLOR

Syntax:

=SUMBYFONTCOLOR(Range; SampleCell)

Parameters:

• Range: The range of cells to sum.
• SampleCell: A cell that contains a color sample.

Example Usage

The SUMBYFONTCOLOR() function is easy to use. You just need to select the desired range of cells and specify the cell that contains the desired color, and LibreOffice Calc will automatically sum the cells with the same color:

=SUMBYFONTCOLOR(A1:D10; F3)

We will have the following result:

This example uses the following values:

• Range: A1:D10 - Range with cells.
• SampleCell: F3 - A cell that contains the required font color (red).

Do you recognize any of these situations?

• Not sure if YLC has this feature, but it would be useful to be able to count the colored cells in a range. Let's say I have 17 cells with red font color in the range B1:B500. I need a formula that counts those 5 cells with red text.
• Is it possible to use color as a SUMIF condition? I have a column that needs to be summed, but I only need cells with red text.
• I noticed that in recent versions of LO Calc can sort by cell color and font. What about the LO Calc function? Can formulas also work with cell and font colors?
• How to count or sum cells by their fill or background color? There doesn't seem to be a formula in LO Calc that would count or sum a range of cells based on a specified background color.

Notes on the calculation

Because LO Calc only recalculates the formula when the value in the (referenced) cell changes, not when the colors change, some worksheet formulas don't always trigger to update. In this case, you can use F9 or Ctrl+Alt+F9 to update the formulas in YLC Utilities.

Download the extension

You can use the SUMBYFONTCOLOR() function by installing a free extension YouLibreCalc.oxt or its full-featured version YLC_Utilities.oxt .

After that, this function will be available in all files that will be opened in LibreOffice Calc.