Excel’s COUNTIF function is useful for single-criterion counting formulas. The COUNTIF function takes two arguments:

• range: The range that contains the values that determine whether to include a particular cell in the count
• criteria: The logical criteria that determine whether to include a particular cell in the count

Table 17-2 lists several examples of formulas that use the COUNTIF function. These formulas all work with a range named Data. As you can see, the criteria argument proves quite flexible. You can use constants, expressions, functions, cell references, and even wildcard characters (* and ?).

TABLE 17-2
Examples of Formulas Using the COUNTIF Function

=COUNTIF(Data,12)
Returns the number of cells containing the value 12

=COUNTIF(Data,”<0”)
Returns the number of cells containing a negative value

=COUNTIF(Data,”<>0”)
Returns the number of cells not equal to 0

=COUNTIF(Data,”>5”)
Returns the number of cells greater than 5

=COUNTIF(Data,A1)
Returns the number of cells equal to the contents of cell A1

=COUNTIF(Data,”>”&A1)
Returns the number of cells greater than the value in cell A1

=COUNTIF(Data,”*”)
Returns the number of cells containing text

=COUNTIF(Data,”???”)
Returns the number of text cells containing exactly three characters

=COUNTIF(Data,”budget”)
Returns the number of cells containing the single word budget (not case
sensitive)

=COUNTIF(Data,”*budget*”)
Returns the number of cells containing the text budget anywhere within the text

=COUNTIF(Data,”A*”)
Returns the number of cells containing text that begins with the letter A (not
case sensitive)

=COUNTIF(Data,TODAY())
Returns the number of cells containing the current date

=COUNTIF(Data,”>”&AVERAGE(Data))
Returns the number of cells with a value greater than the average

=COUNTIF(Data,3)+COUNTIF (Data,-3)
Returns the number of cells containing the value 3 or –3

=COUNTIF(Data,TRUE)
Returns the number of cells containing logical TRUE

=COUNTIF(Data,TRUE)
Returns the number of cells containing a logical value (TRUE or FALSE)

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