I am racking my brain on this problem, and I can’t help but think there must be a better solution. I am trying to create a formula that counts the number of facilities that have findings in each of the areas (There are 80+ areas) 


I am trying to put together an excel formula that will count the number of times a facility number appears in a string of text within a column of data for display in a summary sheet. I am able to get the formula to work for a single cell, but when I try to expand it to the column it doesn’t work. I want to see how many times Facility 596 appears in column B:B. Here is an example:
B1: 581;#603;#614;#626;#596
B2: 596;596
If I use this formula it works:
=((LEN(B1)-LEN(SUBSTITUTE(B1,596,"")))/LEN(596))+((LEN(B1)-LEN(SUBSTITUTE(B1,596,"")))/LEN(596)) = 3
If I try to expand it to include the entire column, it doesn’t work:
=((LEN(B:B)-LEN(SUBSTITUTE(B:B,596,"")))/LEN(596)) = #VALUE
Any ideas? Thank you in advance!



I am trying to put together an excel formula that will count the number of times a facility number appears in a string of text within a column of data for display in a summary sheet. I am able to get the formula to work for a single cell, but when I try to expand it to the column it doesn’t work. I want to see how many times Facility 596 appears in column B:B. Here is an example:
B1: 581;#603;#614;#626;#596
B2: 596;596
If I use this formula it works:
=((LEN(B1)-LEN(SUBSTITUTE(B1,596,"")))/LEN(596))+((LEN(B1)-LEN(SUBSTITUTE(B1,596,"")))/LEN(596)) = 3
If I try to expand it to include the entire column, it doesn’t work:
=((LEN(B:B)-LEN(SUBSTITUTE(B:B,596,"")))/LEN(596)) = #VALUE
Any ideas? Thank you in advance!