Total a value based on another variable

[cnwalk21]

I have a spreadsheet that I need to count the number of entries based on another entry. Specifically I need to count the number of times the word spoil shows up based on the name of a a specific person. If I have 20 entries of john doe and only 3 of those he has a spoil, I want it to return the value of 3. I thought I had this worked out, but I found that it was counting the number of times spoil was entered regardless of the name of the person. This seems as though it should be very simple but I am stuck.... I know how to count each one individually using the countif statement but I cannot make it work with two variables.

 

[cornflakegirl]

You need a variation on
=SUMPRODUCT(--(A1:A10 = "John Doe"),--(B1:B10 = "spoil"))

 

[cnwalk21]

Forever grateful!

 

[cornflakegirl]

No problem. This site: http://www.xldynamic.com/source/xld.SUMPRODUCT.html gives a really thorough introduction to this use of SUMPRODUCT, which isn't detailed in the help file.