Question

I’m looking for the most elegant way to count the same number values in a noncontiguous range (I’ll refer to it as just ‘range’). This is the range:

=$C$2:$C$31,$E$2:$E$31,$G$2:$G$31,$I$2:$I$31,$K$2:$K$31,$M$2:$M$31,$O$2:$O$31,$Q$2:$Q$31,$S$2:$S$7

These are the parameters:

• The range contains non-adjacent columns.
• The columns differ in height.
• The cells in the range are either empty or contain integers.
• I’m checking for how many cells equal ‘1’, how many equal ‘2’ etc. in the range. (Not in one go, but in seperate formulas).
• I’ve used a named range to reference the range. I’d really like to use this named range in the formula, in one way or another.

I hope I’ve given you enough info… Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

One approach is to use excel built in function Countif, but it won’t work with non-contigous range. The other way (the easy way) will be to use VBA to create your own custom function, and then use it in excel.
I’ve presented that technique here.

Goto visual basic editor in excel by pressing Alt+F11, in the project window insert a new module and paste the below code:

Function countif_n(rng As Range, key As Range) As Integer

Dim count As Integer
count = 0

For Each cell In rng
    If cell.Value = key.Value Then
        count = count + 1
    End If
Next cell

countif_n = count

End Function  

Here rng is your non-contigous range, and key represent the “range”(cell) which contains the value you want to count. For eg., to check for 1 enter 1 in any cell lets suppose “F2”, and your non-contigous range is “testrange”

Then use the above function by entering the following in any blank cell:

=countif_n(testrange, F2)