Question

Given a spreadsheet with two columns, say A and B, each containing n values under it, all text; is there a formula that allows me to fill just one cell containing the amount of equal values in columns A and B?

Example:

    A   B
    -----
1   M   M
2   L   M
3   L   L
4   M   M
5   M   L
    -----
        3

Since columns A and B both contain an M in rows 1 and 4, and an L in row 3, the result is (i.e. 2+1).

Answer 1

A simple solution is to use QUERY function in google spreadsheet:

=SUM(QUERY(A1:B5, "Select 1 where A = B"))

Or using SUMPRODUCT:

=ARRAYFORMULA(SUM(((A:A)=(B:B)) * (1) ))