COUNTIF - FIRST OCCURRENCE ONLY

[cher22]

Hi all,
I've searched help on countif with no luck so far, so I am not sure if I'm on the right track.
I have 714 records with an alpha/numeric reference code in column A. This code may appear several times in that column however I only want to count the first occurrence along with all the unique ones. Ie. The total number of different codes used, whether they appear more than once or not is irrelevent. Hope I have made sense and that someone out there can help. Thanks.
Regards,
Cheryl.

 

[PaddyD]

hi - welcome to the board!

do a search for 'count distinct' or 'count unique' - here's one to get you started:

http://www.mrexcel.com/board2/viewtopic.php?t=73502

..post back if you can't get it sorted.

 

[cher22]

Hi Paddy,
Thanks for your help. I found a post from someone with the same problem. Formula as follows:

=SUMPRODUCT((A7:A721<>"")/COUNTIF(A7:A721,A7:A721&""))

Thanks again.