Most people use a SUM function in their spreadsheets. But if you want to add up only some parts of your data, then SUMIFS is a handy function to know.
=SUMIFS(sum_range, criteria_range1, criteria1, [criteria_range2, criteria2], …)
SUMIFS takes in at least 3 inputs. Sum_range is the number that you want to add up.
criteria_range1 is paired with criteria1 and it is here that you point to the data to select and the criteria you are using to make that selection.
You can add up to 127 criteria_range/criteria pairs! Criteria_Range2, criteria2 and on are optional, as denoted by the square brackets.
An example will help to make things clearer.
As you can see, we have four areas and two types. Each row has an amount. To calculate the sum of the amounts for each area/type pairing we can use a SUMIFS function.
The outline of the selected function is, add the numbers in the blue section, where the area (red) is North and the Type (Green) is A. With good use of absolute references in our function we can copy the same formula down and across and get the total for each area/type pair.
In some ways this is similar to what you can get from a pivot table. If you only have one criteria to use then you can do a SUMIF instead, although I often use a SUMIFS even with only one criteria as then when things change, as they often do, it is easy to add new criteria, rather than having to redo the whole function. Also, SUMIF has the criteria first, and I always find that a bit confusing. If you want to learn about SUMIF, you can read about that here.