Countif requirements are different from cell to cell?

Josh G.

I'm calculating a count per month. The September field calculates correctly using an equal sign and the month to count. However, October requires me to remove the equal sign to calculate the count. The referenced column is the same in both months. Why is this happening and how is it corrected? See below pics:

Paul Newcome

What kind of data do you have populating the range in the source sheet?

I personally always use

@cell = "whatever"

so I don't tend to run into this issue.

Josh G.

@Paul Newcome seems to be text/number. What I noticed is if the field begins with a zero, it requires the equal sign. If it starts with anything but zero, it doesn't need the equal sign. Trying to understand why that is considering in both cases it requires quotes.

Paul Newcome

Leading zeros have always been a bit finicky.

Exactly how are you populating the referenced range? Is it through a formula? If so, what is the formula?