The formula =SUM(A1:A5) does what?

The formula =SUM(A1:A5) is used in Microsoft Excel to add all numeric values contained in cells A1 through A5. It is one of the most commonly used functions in Excel and is part of the Math & Trig function category. The colon (:) in A1:A5 tells Excel to treat the range as a series of continuous cells from A1 to A5.

For example, if the values in cells A1 through A5 are:
A1 = 2, A2 = 4, A3 = 6, A4 = 8, A5 = 10,
then =SUM(A1:A5) will return 30.

This function saves time and avoids manual addition, especially in large spreadsheets. Instead of writing =A1+A2+A3+A4+A5, you can use =SUM(A1:A5), which is cleaner and more efficient.