Counting the number of cells containing text in Excel

In this article, we will learn Counting the number of cells containing text in Excel.

What is COUNTIFS with criteria ?

In simple words, while working with table values, sometimes we need to count the values which ends with a specific text or pattern. Example if we need to find the count of a certain ID which ends with a certain pattern. Criteria inside the formula executed using the operators. Let's see the formula and example to illustrate the formula

How to solve the problem ?

For this article we will be required to use the COUNTIF function. Now we will make a formula out of the function. Here we are given some values in a range and specific text values as criteria. We need to count the values where the formula includes all the values which ends with the given text or pattern

Generic formula:

= COUNTIF ( range, "*pattern" )

range : values given in as range

* : wildcards which find any number of characters within a given cell.

pattern : given text or pattern to look for. Use pattern directly in the formula or else if you are using cell reference for the pattern use the other formula shown below.

Generic formula:

= COUNTIF ( range, "*" & pattern )

& : operator to concatenate the 2 values

Example:

All of these might be confusing to understand. So, let's test this formula via running it on the example shown below. Here we have the ID records and we need to find the IDs which ends with A category.

Here to find the A category IDs, will be using the * (asterisk) wildcard in the formula. * (asterisk) wildcard finds any number of characters within lookup value.

Use the formula:

= COUNTIF ( C3:C14, "*A" )

= COUNTIF ( C3:C14, "*" & E4 )

Explanation:

COUNTIF function count the cells given criteria
Criteria is given in using * (asterisk) wildcard to look for value which has any number of characters.
& operator concatenate the two values where it lays
"*" & E4 : criteria, formula checks each cell and returns only the cells which satisfies the criteria

Here the range is given as array reference and pattern is given as cell reference. Press Enter to get the count.

As you can see the total values which ends with value A comes out to be 4.

Now copy the formula in other cells using the drag down option or using the shortcut key Ctrl + D as shown below.

As you can see all the different category count of IDs is there.

You can check which values end with a specific pattern in range using the excel filter option. Apply the filter to the ID header and click the arrow button which appears. Follow the steps as shown below.

Steps:

Select the ID header cell. Apply filter using shortcut Ctrl + Shift + L
Click the arrow which appeared as a filter option.
Deselect (Select All) option.
Now search in search box using the * (asterisk) wildcard.
Type *A in the search box and select the required values or select the (Select All search result) option as shown in the above gif.

As you can see in the above gif all the 4 values which match the given pattern. This also means the formula works fine to get the count of these values

Here are some observational notes shown below.

Notes:

The formula only works with numbers and text both
Operators like equals to ( = ), less than equal to ( <= ), greater than ( > ) or not equals to ( <> ) can be performed within function applied with numbers only.

Hope this article about Counting the number of cells containing text in Excel is explanatory. Find more articles on calculating values and related Excel formulas here. If you liked our blogs, share it with your friends on Facebook. And also you can follow us on Twitter and Facebook. We would love to hear from you, do let us know how we can improve, complement or innovate our work and make it better for you. Write to us at info@exceltip.com.

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Angela
April 22, 2015 at 11:17 pm

What formula would you use to count the number of cells in column b that contain text and have adjacent cells in columns c:g that are blank?

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