How does the SQL version of SUMIF work?

WHERE region = 'West' is the criteria range and criterion. SUM(amount) is the sum range, the column whose values are added up. To get a total for every region at once, as a table of SUMIFs would, group instead: SELECT region, SUM(amount) FROM sales GROUP BY region.

Why can SQL give a different result from SUMIF?

Excel's SUMIF is case-insensitive and accepts wildcards like West*; in SQL use ILIKE or LIKE 'West%' for the same effect.

SUMIF in SQL

SUMIF adds up the values that meet one condition; in SQL you do the same with SUM and a WHERE clause.

The Excel version

=SUMIF(B:B, "West", C:C)

The SQL equivalent

This example assumes: sales(id bigint, region text, amount numeric, sale_date date). It is written in PostgreSQL syntax, and your table and column names will differ from these.

SELECT SUM(amount) AS west_sales
FROM sales
WHERE region = 'West';

How it works

WHERE region = 'West' is the criteria range and criterion.
SUM(amount) is the sum range, the column whose values are added up.
To get a total for every region at once, as a table of SUMIFs would, group instead: SELECT region, SUM(amount) FROM sales GROUP BY region.

Where the results differ from Excel

Excel's SUMIF is case-insensitive and accepts wildcards like West*; in SQL use ILIKE or LIKE 'West%' for the same effect.
With no matching rows SUMIF returns 0, while SQL's SUM returns null; use COALESCE(SUM(amount), 0).
Criteria such as ">100" are strings in Excel; in SQL they are ordinary comparisons: WHERE amount > 100.

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What are total sales for the West region?
Give me total sales for each region.