Need an equation to count text from a column with multiple selections

shyannroddy

I'm having the issue of getting an equation to work properly in order to get a count on text in a drop down list of items.

For example: I need to count how many times "Electrical" or "Paint" is mentioned in the same cell for the whole column.

I keep getting error messages.

The only equation that I could get to work would only show the output of how many times "Paint" was mentioned on it's own, not in the cells that had multiple selections.

=COUNTIF({Range 3}, "Paint") = 2

The whole document has over 300 entries and Paint is called out more time than twice.

Any insight would be much appreciated!

Jennifer Kurtz

Hi @shyannroddy !

Is the column you want to count a multi-select drop down? If so, try HAS in your criteria — e.g., =COUNTIF({Range3}, HAS(@cell, "Paint"))

If the column you want to count is a text column, try CONTAINS. The syntax for CONTAINS is different from HAS - so, that would look like =COUNTIF({Range3}, CONTAINS("Paint", @cell))

Does that help? :)