Q:

How do I write a "not equal to" condition where a number should be interpreted as text?

I have two columns in my Excel-sheet, we can call them A and B. I'm trying to use the =SUMIFS() function in Excel to sum all numbers in column B if the adjacent cell i column A is not equal to 4. This is what I've done:
=SUMIFS(B:B;A:A;"<>4")

My problem is that column A is formatted as text (and I want to keep it this way) and when I do my "not equal to"-statement the 4 is interpreted as a number and not as text which means that the adjacent cell in column B gets summed even though it's not supposed to. How do I get Excel to interpret my 4 as text?
I've already tried entering extra quotation marks as below but this does not work.
=SUMIFS(B:B;A:A;"<>"4"")

and

=SUMIFS(B:B;A:A;"<>'4'")

A:

one would need to use SUMPRODUCT:
 =SUMPRODUCT(B1:B9*(A1:A9<>"4"))

