DSUM equivalent required for 3 condition eq' (just converted from Excel)

Question

Hi, I have just imported a basic accounting spreadsheet from Excel and wish to see if iWork 08 Numbers is up to the task! My issue is that my DSUM calcs for creating the basis for VAT returns is not recognised in Numbers - Can anyone assist with an alternative?
Column A Column B Column C
{date range} {expense category range} {expense amount}
In Excel I used to be able to extract the expenses for a given category between 2 dates using something like this in function DSUM (date range >= Col A, expense category exists in Col B, date <= Col A, resultant expense amount from Col C)
I have tried constructing SUMPRODUCT equations instead to no avail.
In summary I need to return the sum of the expenses in Col C that meet 3 conditions within date range conditions 1 & 2 and meeting expense category condition 3.
Any advice greatly appreciated - I can revert back to Excel, but would prefer the much more economical deployment of numbers, it's basic but provided I can overcome this hurdle, adequate for my needs.
Thanks for reading,
Ross

Answer 1

Ross,
Excel seems to have a function to fit every concievalbe situation but this is certainly not true of Numbers. Your problem can be handled, but it's certainly not as slick as DSUM in Excel.
First of all, an auxiliary column may be added to your table which identifies those rows which meet the three conditions you list (plus eliminates blank situations). Actually, since this is an auxiliary column which may be hidden, I should think that you could eliminate the first part of the the formula where blanks are weeded out if you're willing to live with red and blue triangles.
"In Range":
=IF(OR(ISBLANK(Date),ISBLANK(Table 2::A$2),ISBLANK(Table 2::B$2)),"",IF(AND(Date>=Table 2::A$2,Date<=Table 2::B$2,Category<>""),"yes",""))
Then in the "Range Sum" column of the the second table,
=SUMIF(Table 1 :: In Range,“yes”,Table 1 :: D)
Note that this sum also includes a zero for Oct 8 where no amount was entered, If this is an error that must noted, Table 1 will have to be modified to flag the error.
pw