Summing columns

**nonexcelman** · 08-23-2010, 04:45 PM

Hi: I am new to excel. I want to total how many times an item appears in a column. I have attached an example. The columns in question are highlighted in yellow. These are content that appear on the right side of our website. So I need to know how many times they appear. Does that make sense? Is excel able to do this? Thanks in advance.

**brianmac** · 08-23-2010, 05:00 PM

You can try a countif formula. That should get what your looking for if i understand correctly.

=countif(B1:B173,"criteria")

in place of "criteria" type the item you want to check. hope that helps

**NBVC** · 08-23-2010, 05:00 PM

Maybe:

=COUNTIF(E3,E:E)

copied down in another empty column... starting at row 3.

**darkyam** · 08-23-2010, 05:01 PM

Yes, highlight the column, then go to Advanced Filter, select Unique records only, then copy to another location and pick your location. That will give you a unique list of values. Then, to the right of the first cell, do =Countif($B$1:$B$173,A200), where A200 is the start of your unique list in this example, and copy down as necessary.

**nonexcelman** · 08-24-2010, 02:59 PM

Originally Posted by brianmac

You can try a countif formula. That should get what your looking for if i understand correctly.

=countif(B1:B173,"criteria")

in place of "criteria" type the item you want to check. hope that helps

Hi: That seems to work, however, it does not seem to be picking up the cells that have multiple items in them?

**NBVC** · 08-24-2010, 03:10 PM

You can use wildcards...

e.g.

=Countif(B1:B173,"*criteria*")

or

=Countif(B1:B173,"*"&X1&"*") if you have the lookup criteria stored in a cell, like in X1.

**nonexcelman** · 08-24-2010, 03:26 PM

Originally Posted by NBVC

You can use wildcards...

e.g.

=Countif(B1:B173,"*criteria*")

or

=Countif(B1:B173,"*"&X1&"*") if you have the lookup criteria stored in a cell, like in X1.

That worked! Thanks Dude! You r the bomb.