COUNTIF mulitple Not Equal To

[denacho]

i have a column with Vendor names. i used COUNTIF to figure out how many IBM or Dell occurrances. so

=COUNTIF(a1:a30,"<>IBM*")

this works when i'm only counting 1 vendor name

but i have a few cells that have other info in them such as "waiting on vendor name" or perhaps they are blank. so i need a count of cell contents that DON'T contain IBM, HP, or Dell for example. i've tried entering

=COUNTIF(a1:a30,"<>IBM*","<>HP*","<>Dell")

but i get an error that i've entered too many arguments. anyone know how to get a return on cells that contain anything other than my main vendor names? blanks included.

appreciate the help in advance!

[daddylonglegs]

This version will count all those that do contain one of the vendor names

=SUM(COUNTIF(A1:A30,{"IBM*","Dell*","HP*"}))

so for the figure you want subtract that from the total number of cells in the range

=ROWS(A1:A30)-SUM(COUNTIF(A1:A30,{"IBM*","Dell*","HP*"}))

[denacho]

thanks so much! that was it!

[denacho]

and i would mark this Solved, but i cannot figure out how!

[jeffreybrown]

To mark your thread solved do the following:
- Go to the first post
- Click edit
- Click Advance
- Just below the word "Title:" you will see a dropdown with the word No prefix.
- Change to Solve
- Click Save

[denacho]

thanks Jeff. i was looking around & it was in front of me the whole time. sorry for the newbness!