Most likely the Value column in your datatable isn't formatted as numeric (most likely a character).
Here is a script with example table that does work. Look at the left side for columns and their modeling types, Value is continuous (you cannot have data type = character, modeling type = continuous in JMP (you could have numeric nominal though which you cannot see directly from the modeling types...).
Names Default To Here(1);
dt = New Table("Untitled",
Add Rows(6),
Compress File When Saved(1),
New Column("Fermentation", Character, "Nominal", Set Values({"A", "A", "A", "B", "B", "B"})),
New Column("Treatment",
Character(16),
"Nominal",
Set Values({"1", "2", "Blank", "1", "2", "Blank"})
),
New Column("Value",
Numeric,
"Continuous",
Format("Best", 12),
Set Values([98, 73, 6, 84, 86, 5])
),
New Column("Fermentation Blank Value",
Numeric,
"Continuous",
Format("Best", 12),
Set Values([6, 6, 6, 5, 5, 5])
)
);
dt << New Column("Val", Numeric, Continuous, Formula(
Col Sum(If(:Treatment == "Blank", :Value, .), :Fermentation)
));
-Jarmo