References within cells

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I have a cell with the function '=ADDRESS(2, A2)' (A2 contains another formula which calculates the number for this address) - so this returns $B$row determined by A2

I have a row of cells with statuses of items in which I want to add up.....but I dont want to add them all - only up to the address calculated in the cell mentioned above.

What I want is to have a cell saying '=COUNTIF(B1:the cell calculated from the ADDRESS function , A)'

is there any way to do this? To take a reference stored in one cell and insert it into the formula in another?

I've been having trouble trying to explain this problem so let me know if it makes sense.

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Is that a case of no-one knows? or did i not explain the problem well