How to count characters in a number of cells?

Hello,
Hope someone can help me with this.
I want to count how many f.ex. a's there is in a number of cells. This is what I have:

A1: aaaf
A2: faas
A3:
A4: ffhhh

I've found out how to count the number of a's in one cell - like this:

=LEN(A1)-LEN(SUBSTITUTE(A1;"a";""))
The result is 3

But how can I make one calculation that will do the same calculation for a lot of cells and add all the results.... The result from doing it on the 4 cells above should be 5.

I know I could 'just' repeat the calculation manually, but since I must add the results from 52 cells (one for every week in a year) it would be a huge calculation and I'm sure it can be done much easier - I just don't know how...

Kind regards,
Staalander

Bryan - I would prefer to do it all in one calculation because I have many columns that I need to count and don't want to double the columns with a subtotal column. But thanks.

Carim - that looks like exactly what I want to accomplish - only problem is I'm quite an amateur in Excel so I have no idea where to code it - how do I put code in a cell ?? How about a link where I can learn 'how to'... Thanks.

Staalander

OK, now I've got a macro (in a module) - and I get the correct result if I mark a number of cells and run the macro on them.

But is there a way to put the result in a cell - just as if it was an ordinary formula/calculation ?? Something like "EXECUTE 'countit' on (A1:A4)" ... ??

Staalander

Originally Posted by Staalander

=LEN(A1)-LEN(SUBSTITUTE(A1;"a";""))
The result is 3

But how can I make one calculation that will do the same calculation for a lot of cells

With a formula.....

=SUMPRODUCT(LEN(A1:A52)-LEN(SUBSTITUTE(A1:A52;"a";"")))

Thank you!! - that is exactly what I wanted - imagine that it was so simple...

Kind regards
Helle Staalander