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Roger_Bullen's avatar
Roger_Bullen
Copper Contributor
Feb 26, 2023
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MS Excel - COUNTIFS not picking up instances of text in cells

Hello,

 

I've set up this COUNTIFS formula to pick up text references in cells in a monthly timesheet so that I can calculate if work activity has taken place during specific hours of the day.

 

=COUNTIFS(F202:G202,"*",M202:N202,"*",T202:U202,"*",AA202:AB202,"*")

 

I have succesffuly created a COUNTIF formula for the entire month '=COUNTIF(A202:AE202,"*")'.

 

However, I also want to identify weekend working. The COUNTIFS formula is based on the COUNTIF formula but its not picking up cells with text in them - I know some weekend cells in row 202 contain text. I was wondering if anyone could see any issue with the COUNTIFS formula which would cause this to happen.

 

Thanks

 

Roger

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  • JosWoolley's avatar
    JosWoolley
    Feb 26, 2023

    Roger_Bullen 

     

    I believe what you intended was:

    =SUM(
    COUNTIFS(F202:G202, "*"),
    COUNTIFS(M202:N202, "*"),
    COUNTIFS(T202:U202, "*"),
    COUNTIFS(AA202:AB202, "*")
)

    though this can't easily be abbreviated using COUNTIFS. It might be worth switching to COUNTA:

    =COUNTA(
    F202:G202,
    M202:N202,
    T202:U202,
    AA202:AB202
)

    though this will count numerics as well, if that's an issue.

     

    Regards

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  • JosWoolley's avatar
    JosWoolley
    Iron Contributor
    Feb 26, 2023

    Roger_Bullen 

     

    I believe what you intended was:

    =SUM(
    COUNTIFS(F202:G202, "*"),
    COUNTIFS(M202:N202, "*"),
    COUNTIFS(T202:U202, "*"),
    COUNTIFS(AA202:AB202, "*")
)

    though this can't easily be abbreviated using COUNTIFS. It might be worth switching to COUNTA:

    =COUNTA(
    F202:G202,
    M202:N202,
    T202:U202,
    AA202:AB202
)

    though this will count numerics as well, if that's an issue.

     

    Regards

    • Roger_Bullen's avatar
      Roger_Bullen
      Copper Contributor
      Feb 26, 2023
      JosWoolley I didn't see your suggestion before I replied. I've tried the COUNTA option and that works very well. Thanks very much!
  • JosWoolley's avatar
    JosWoolley
    Iron Contributor
    Feb 26, 2023

    Roger_Bullen 

     

    Perhaps you aren't aware of what your current formula is calculating? Just to clarify, that formula will only ever give a result of 0, 1 or 2, as follows:

     

    2 - if all entries in F202:G202, M202:N202, T202:U202, AA202:AB202 contain text

    1 - if either all entries in F202, M202, T202, AA202 contain text or all entries in G202, N202, U202, AB202 contain text

    0 - otherwise

     

    Regards

    • Roger_Bullen's avatar
      Roger_Bullen
      Copper Contributor
      Feb 26, 2023

      Thanks JosWoolley . I was expecting a count of all instances similar to the result I get when using COUNTIF.

       

      That being the case, should I be using another type of formula? What formula is suitable if the range is not continuous?

      I just tried '=COUNTIF(INDIRECT({"F3:G3","M3:N3","T3:U3","AA3:AB3"}),"*")' but this doesn't pick up any results either.

       

      Roger

      • JosWoolley's avatar
        JosWoolley
        Iron Contributor
        Feb 26, 2023

        Roger_Bullen 

         

        True, you could also use 

        =SUM(
    COUNTIF(
        INDIRECT({"F202:G202","M202:N202","T202:U202","AA202:AB202"}),
        "*"
    )
)

        though it's volatile and inflexible, so I'd not recommend it. 

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