countif for letters, possible?

[Jennifre]

Hi, I tried this, a formula to count the occurrence of the state abbreviations in a row of them.

I've obviously gone wrong (I get, "The formula you typed contains an error," though I see none. I edited this from a countif for numbers.

If anyone can tell where I have gone wrong, that'd be great; thanks!

My effort:
=COUNTIF(BZ2,{"CA","AL","AK","AZ","AR","CA","CO","CT","DE","DC","FL","GA","HI","ID","IL","IN";16,"IA","KS","KY","LA","ME","MD","MA","MI","MN","MS","MO","MT","NE","NV","NH","NJ","NM","NY","NC","ND","OH","OK","OR","PA","RI","SC","SD","TN","TX","UT","VT","VA","WA","WV","WI","WY"})

 

[Dryver14]

Could it be the ; after "IN"

 

[T. Valko]

Hi, I tried this, a formula to count the occurrence of the state abbreviations in a row of them.

I've obviously gone wrong (I get, "The formula you typed contains an error," though I see none. I edited this from a countif for numbers.

If anyone can tell where I have gone wrong, that'd be great; thanks!

My effort:
=COUNTIF(BZ2,{"CA","AL","AK","AZ","AR","CA",..."IN";...})

There is a semi-colon after "IN" where there should be a comma.

However, that formula will only look for the first criteria "CA" which you have listed twice. All the other criteria are ignored.

Why don't you use a range of cells to hold the 50 state abbreviations and then refer to that range?

A2:A51 = state abbreviations

Then:

=COUNTIF(A2:A51,BZ2)

 

[Jennifre]

Hm, thank you so much for that! However, when I tried it, the counts are not accurate, and they go beyond the number of state abbreviations I have referenced.

Thank you... I'm so, so dorky in Excel. Thanks so much.

Outline: I have your recommended column of state abbreviations in a column referred to by the formula cell, though in spite of there being only 52 rows / state abbreviations, the last number repeats to eternity, if I pull it that long. Usually this type of formula is repeating 0s once there is no additional data options to "countif".

Is there a mistake made given this repeat of the last countif'd data ?

Thanks again.

 

[Dryver14]

no the pretties responce but I have given the bright people to sort it so here come the "thickies"

assuming state abbreviations are in A3:A55

and you type CA in A1

in B3 use this formula

=IF($A$1=A3,1,"") and drag along then in B2

=SUM(C3:C55)

If you have "stuff" in row 2 use row 100 or 1000

 

[Haseeb Avarakkan]

Hi, I tried this, a formula to count the occurrence of the state abbreviations in a row of them.

I've obviously gone wrong (I get, "The formula you typed contains an error," though I see none. I edited this from a countif for numbers.

If anyone can tell where I have gone wrong, that'd be great; thanks!

My effort:
=COUNTIF(BZ2,{"CA","AL","AK","AZ","AR","CA","CO","CT","DE","DC","FL","GA","HI","ID","IL","IN";16,"IA","KS","KY","LA","ME","MD","MA","MI","MN","MS","MO","MT","NE","NV","NH","NJ","NM","NY","NC","ND","OH","OK","OR","PA","RI","SC","SD","TN","TX","UT","VT","VA","WA","WV","WI","WY"})

Hello,

Perhaps this could help you.

Below is the data on BZ2

<b>Excel 2007</b><table cellpadding="2.5px" rules="all" style=";background-color: #FFFFFF;border: 1px solid;border-collapse: collapse; border-color: #A6AAB6"><colgroup><col width="25px" style="background-color: #E0E0F0" /><col /></colgroup><thead><tr style=" background-color: #E0E0F0;text-align: center;color: #161120"><th></th><th>BZ</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr ><td style="color: #161120;text-align: center;">2</td><td style=";">CA AK AL PP AA SS 16 GA ID</td></tr></tbody></table><p style="width:3.6em;font-weight:bold;margin:0;padding:0.2em 0.6em 0.2em 0.5em;border: 1px solid #A6AAB6;border-top:none;text-align: center;background-color: #E0E0F0;color: #161120">Sheet2</p><br /><br />

This formula will give you count 6

=SUM(COUNTIF(BZ2,"*"&{"CA";"AL";"AK";"AZ";"AR";"CO";"CT";"DE";"DC";"FL";"GA";"HI";"ID";"IL";"IN";16;"IA";"KS";"KY";"LA";"ME";"MD";"MA";"MI";"MN";"MS";"MO";"MT";"NE";"NV";"NH";"NJ";"NM";"NY";"NC";"ND";"OH";"OK";"OR";"PA";"RI";"SC";"SD";"TN";"TX";"UT";"VT";"VA";"WA";"WV";"WI";"WY"}&"*"))

 

[Norie]

If you do have a list of state abbreviations in a range make sure that part of the formula is an absolute reference.

If it isn't and you drag the formula the reference will change, and probably be incorrect.