Count instances of dates across range of cells (not cells which contain dates)

[ellison]

Hi, we are trying to tidy up some data and are trying to count instances of dates across a range of cells.
Previously we counting cells which contain dates (using countif as below) but there was lots of info not being captured.
Is it possible to find a way of doing this?

It may be worth me saying that one of the challenges we have is that some of the cells contain over 255 characters which can cause some formulas / macros to fall over
(PS we are trying to put some controls in place to stop the info cells being so long, but that's for the future! )

row	Info-1	Info-2	Info-3	Info-4	Info-5	Count-Cells-Formula	Notes
2	red	blue	11/06/2023 sold 10/11/2023 sold	11/06/2023 bought 11/06/2023	new source needed 11/06/2023	3 cells = COUNTIF(B2:F2,"*/??/*")	5 occurrences of dates, sometimes dates are in the middle of a cell
3		Essex	11/06/2023 herts 11/06/2023 move		11/06/2023 essex	3 cells = COUNTIF(B2:F2,"*/??/*")	3 occurrences of dates, sometimes there are blanks in the info
4		11/06/2023 herts	11/06/2023 herts			3 cells = COUNTIF(B2:F2,"*/??/*")	2 occurrences of dates, sometimes there are duplicates in the info
5	1	11/06/2023				3 cells = COUNTIF(B2:F2,"*/??/*")	1 occurrence of date, sometimes the cells in the info are numeric

Huge thanks for any help

All the best

 

[ellison]

Maybe perhaps could it be added into the cell formula to work on the "first" 243 characters?

 

[Peter_SSs]

Is there are a different workaroud maybe?

Not highly tested, but how does this go in H2, copied across and down?

=LET(s,CONCAT(IF(ISNUMBER($B2:$F2),TEXT($B2:$F2,"dd/mm/yyyy"),$B2:$F2)),(LEN(s)-LEN(SUBSTITUTE(s,TEXT(H$1,"dd/mm/yyyy"),"")))/10)

 

[ellison]

Absolutely brilliant Peter H-U-G-E thanks!

 

[Peter_SSs]

You're welcome. Thanks for the follow-up.

 

[ellison]

Pleasure!