title: Excel SUMIFS on single criteria with zero and non-zero values
body: <p>I'm trying to figure out a formula for SUMIFS where a multi-criteria range may or may not contain zero. Take the following table for example.</p>
  
  <pre><code>|Title    |Age|Color
  |---------|---|------
  |Odyssey  |5  |Brown
  |Tempest  |2  |Yellow
  |Iliad    |3  |
  |Macbeth  |9  |Brown
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>My goal is to get a SUMIFS where Color is 'Brown' or blank. What I've tried is</p>
  
  <pre><code>=SUMIFS(B2:B5,C2:C5,{"Brown",""})
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>However, this returns a value of '14' which is a sum of Brown values only and does not sum the '3' from the blank color row. If I switch it up and use </p>
  
  <pre><code>=SUMIFS(B2:B5,C2:C5,{"","Brown"})
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>it returns '3' which is just the blank value, and not Brown. It seems to only consider the first value in the array.</p>
  
  <p>What am I doing wrong? What's the correct formula for taking an array where the value can be NULL or a specified value?</p>
  
  <p>PS I've also tried <code>ISBLANK</code>, <code>ISNULL</code>, <code>NULL</code>, etc.</p>