XL: Counting Cells in a Range that Contain Text String

Last reviewed: August 20, 1997
Article ID: Q28262

SUMMARY

To count the number of cells in a range that contain a particular character or characters, use the following array formula in a single cell (array formulas must be entered by pressing COMMAND+ENTER):

   =SUM(IF(NOT(ISERROR(SEARCH("search text",range))),1))

This formula searches for the occurrence of the search text in a cell, returns #VALUE! if an occurrence is not found, and then counts the number of nonerror values.

For example, suppose you want to search for the text "my" in the following range of cells:

   +---+---------+
   |   |    A    |
   +---+---------+
   | 1 | mytext  |
   +---+---------+
   | 2 | text    |
   +---+---------+
   | 3 | textmy  |
   +---+---------+
   | 4 | temyxt  |
   +---+---------+

The formula =SUM(IF(NOT(ISERROR(SEARCH("my",$A$1:$A$4))),1)) will return a value of 3 because "my" occurs three times in the range A1:A4.

Additional reference words: 1.00 1.03 1.04 1.06 1.50 2.20 3.00

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Last reviewed: August 20, 1997
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