Eight ways to exploit COUNTIF() and sumif() too

[spreadcheats]
Posted on November 12th, 2008 in Learn Excel - 73 comments

If for every countif() I write excel paid me a dollar, I would be a millionaire by now. It is such a versatile and fun
formula to work with that I have decided to write about it as third post in our spreadcheats series.

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Using COUNTIF() to replace pivot tables: We all

know that you can use countif() to replace pivot tables for simple data summarization. For eg. if you
have customer data in a table and you would like to know how many customers you have in each city
you can use countif() to find that.
countif("master-data-range","city name")
More on this method of using countif and 4 other ways of using excel if () formulas
Counting Valid Phone Numbers in a Range: Using operators < and > in countif() you can findout valid
phone numbers in range like this: countif("data-range",">"&1000000000)
Finding number of customers in a city based on their phone number: This trick may not work perfectly.
We can use countif("data-range","22*")to findout total customers in Mumbai (since all Mumbai phone
numbers begin with 22)
Note: This method works as long as phone numbers have identifiable calling codes and stored as text.
To covert a number to text you can use text() or append an empty space to the number.
Pattern matching: Often when you extract data from other sources and paste it in excel it is difficult to
process it when the formats are not consistent. For eg. when you copy address data of a bunch of
customers and need to know how many customers are in New York you can use countif like this:
countif("data range", "*new york*"), the operator * tells excel to match any cell with new york in it,
not necessarily at the beginning or end of the cell.
Counting positive numbers in a range: Again we use the > operator to count the positive numbers in a
range like this: countif("data-range",">0").
A very good use of this trick is when you need to calculate average of a bunch of numbers but need to
exclude zeros: sum("data-range")/countif("data-range","<>0")
As a replacement to FIND(): Excel FIND() is powerful formula to find if a particular text occurred in
another text. But one problem with find is it returns #value! error if the value you are looking for is not
in the input cell. What if all you need to know was whether your cells had a particular value or not?You
are right, you can use COUNTIF() for that too, like: countif("cell-you-want-to-look","*hilton*")will
return 1 or 0.
For sorting text: Read more on this at sorting text using excel formulas

Findout the number of errors in a sheet: The beauty of countif() is

that you can even count error cells. For eg. you can use it like: =COUNTIF(1:33,"#VALUE!")to findout how
many #VALUE! errors were there in the rows from 1 to 33. This can be useful if you are building a
complex model and need to keep track of errors.

Most of the tricks should work with SUMIF() as well.

If you like this, read the other posts in the spreadcheats series. It is a 30 post series (3 posted so far) that
aspires to make YOU very good in using excel to solve day to day problems.

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73 Responses to Eight ways to exploit COUNTIF() and sumif() too [spreadcheats]

1.

DBrueggeman says:
November 13, 2008 at 2:31 am
Chandoo
Im on of those LifeHackers that have invaded your blog. I must say that I love the simple style you use
Ive already pointed a number of coworkers to your blog for hints and tricks to relieve myself of the
some of the work that comes with being the resident Office guru.
One thing that would be great for this series is a review of v/hlookup vs. the Index/Match combination. I
can always tell when someone ready to go to the next level when they discover vlookup but using that
command really pumps up the file size in older versions of excel (pre 07). Index(entire range, use Match
on the vertical list, use Match on the horizontal list) is so much more versatile you can change the
order of columns, rows, and pick out items that are left of the lookup. It also is very easy on the file size
(a plus when you have to email files under the draconian limits of the mail attachment size.
Look forward to your future posts youre my newest Google Reader feed!
Reply

2.

Chandoo says:
November 13, 2008 at 7:20 pm
@DBrueggeman: Welcome and thanks alot for the sweet words
I am soooo happy you were able to use some of this and sharing it with others.
I am going to write about offset / vlookup as part of the spreadcheats, may be this week. I hope some
of these questions can be answered.
Reply
Chahine says:
July 28, 2013 at 9:07 am
first when i read your website name i found it funny i thought what that chandoo can do with that
similar name but when i continue reading your work and find out how its pro and well explained im
surprised man and be sure you are the first and only one in my bookmarks concerning Excel !!
you are one from few peoples that are giving and helping without asking anything in return
all the best for you and for Chandoo.org
Regards,
Chahine

Reply
3. Advanced Data Validation Techniques in Excel - Switch lists, change lists etc. | Pointy Haired Dilbert Chandoo.org says:
November 25, 2008 at 7:02 pm
[] name and the list is sorted on column B, we can use offset() and match() combination along with
countif (ahem!) to determine which range to use for project cell []
Reply
4.

Myea Amelia says:

December 17, 2008 at 5:37 am
Thanks for your tutorial,..
This is the first place i search when i have some difficulty in excel.
Keep writing
Reply
Chandoo says:
December 19, 2008 at 12:57 am
@Myea: Thank you so much. I am happy you like my site and use it very much
Reply

5.

Raj Kiran says:

March 5, 2009 at 6:42 am
Hi Chandoo,
I am trying to provide summary analysis from a Raw data for eg production tickets. Here I would like to
display a table which shows no. of High, Medium and Low issues with respect to OPEN, CLOSED and