Have you ever needed to count up the number of entries in a range based upon a specific entry within that range? If so, the COUNTIF function is for you. It is an easy and powerful function so let's get started.
SYNTAX: =COUNTIF(range,criteria)
The range portion of the formula is one or more cells you want to count within and the criteria is what you want to count for. Read on for a scenario and an example formula.
Scenario: You keep track of the monthly sales of a sales staff of over two hundred people. It's the end of the month and you want to find out how many people have recorded sales in excess of 30000 for the month. Assuming that your sales figures are recorded in range B5:B212 the formula would read as follows:
=COUNTIF(B5:B212,">30000")
The B5:B212 represents the range you wish to count within and the ">30000" is the criteria you are looking for within the specified range. Notice that the math expression must be quoted within the formula. The formula will count all entries in the range and return the total number of entries meeting the criteria.
Take a look at
Figure 1 to see a small sample spreadsheet of the formula in use.
One More Example
=COUNTIF(C2:C525,"Yes")
The above example formula is looking in range C2:C525 for the word "Yes". The formula will return the total number of "Yes" found within the range.
The next time you need to count up specific entries in a range save time and use COUNTIF!
