COUNTIF with CSV data

mpearce The PQ solution queries the blue shaded area in my original file, a named range called "Apples". Then I added a column with just numbers 1 (can be anything, as long as it's the same, so the you have a column to combine by.

The combining of columns was done by Text.Combine . More about that in the link (one of many similar links) below.

https://exceloffthegrid.com/power-query-combine-rows-into-a-single-cell/ 

Once you have all the apples in one column (and on one row),  separated by commas, you can split the column by delimiter. Transpose the whole lot, remove the 1 at the top and clean-up (trim) the rest to get rid of leading and trailing spaces. Now you end up with a one column table with the different apples in rows. This column can be grouped applying a count. Load the end result to Excel.

I still consider myself somewhat of a beginner when it comes to PQ, so perhaps it can be done better/differently. If you have never used PQ yourself, this is probably going to take some time to grasp. Personally, I didn't find PQ straight-forward at all in the beginning. Especially not when one has to start customising M-code and when you plan to use Excel-like functions and formulae that don't exist in PQ/M. There are many PQ tutorials on the web. Google a lot and you'll find answers all the time.