CountIf Formula in Excel

What does it do?

Counts the number of cells that matches your specified condition

Formula breakdown:

=COUNTIF(range, criteria)

What it means:

=COUNTIF(range of cells to check, condition to check against)

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Do you have a scenario where you want to count the number of cells that match a specific condition?

I’m sure you do!  There is a simple way to count this with Excel’s COUNTIF formula!

The COUNTIF formula is very flexible indeed, so let us try to count the following from our Excel worksheet:

• Number of cells greater than 2
• Number of cells that have a Yellow value
• Number of cells that start with the letter J

I explain how you can do this below:

STEP 1: We need to enter the COUNTIF function in a blank cell:

=COUNTIF(

 

STEP 2: The COUNTIF arguments:

range

What is the range of values that you want to check against your condition?

=COUNTIF(A9:A12,

criteria

What is the condition that you want to check against?

For our 1st example, we want to count the number of values greater than 2.

=COUNTIF(A9:A12, “>2”)

You now have your count of numbers greater than 2!

 

STEP 3: Now let us try for counting the number of Yellow values:

=COUNTIF(C9:C12, “Yellow”)

You now have your count of values that have the Yellow text!

 

STEP 4: Now let us try for counting the number of names starting with the Letter J:

Let us use the wildcard expression J*

* signifies a wildcard character i.e. Return any value that begins with a J

=COUNTIF(E9:E12, “J*”)

You now have your count of values that have a starting letter of J!

 

CountIf Formula in Excel