Formula to count unspecified word/phrase

Margherita Falavigna

Hi,

Could anyone help me in finding a formula able to count how many times unspecified words/phrases come up in a column?

Specifically: I have 1 column of a sheet where I am tracking the name of customers. What I would like to get is a numerical quantification of how many times the same customer is found in one column. So far I have been using the COUNTIFS formula, but this means that I need to state a specific word/phrase in order to count how many times it comes up in a column. But what I would like to get is a formula that recognized instances where the same word/phrase is repeated in different cells.

Thanks a lot!

Margherita

BullandKhmer

Hi,

"But what I would like to get is a formula that recognized instances where the same word/phrase is repeated in different cells".

How is this different from COUNTIF?

Genevieve P.

Hi @Margherita Falavigna

You can use COUNT(DISTINCT( to find out how many individual names are in that column, without knowing what those names are:

However it sounds like you want each individual name to be counted, without knowing what that name is. In this instance, could add in a helper column in your source sheet to Count how many times the value to the left appears in the column:

Or I would suggest setting up a Report, then Grouping by the Customer name and applying a Summary to COUNT how many rows are associated with each value. See: Redesigned Reports with Grouping and Summary Functions

If none of this has helped, it would be useful to know a bit more about your process.

Cheers,

Genevieve