CFI-Excel-eBook

The Corporate Finance Institute Excel
COUNTIF
Count cells that match multiple
criteria
range1 criteria1 range2
criteria2
…
What is the COUNTIF Function?
The COUNTIF function will count the number of cells that meet a specific
criterion. The function is categorized under Statistical functions.
In financial analysis, the COUNTIF function is quite helpful. Take for example
when we need to count the number of times a salesperson exceeded his
target. We can do this by using COUNTIF.
Formula
=COUNTIF(Range, criteria)
The COUNTIF function uses only one argument:
1. Range (required argument) – It defines one or several cells that we wish to
count. The range of cells are those cells that will be tested against the given
criteria and counted if the criteria are satisfied.
2. Criteria – It is a condition defined by us. It is tested against each of the
cells in the supplied range.
The given criteria can be any of the following:
1. It is a numeric value. It can be an integer, decimal, date, time, or logical
value.
2. A text string. It may include wildcards. Wildcards can be a ? (question mark)
or an * (asterisk). A ? matches any single character, whereas, * matches any
sequence of characters. If we wish to actually find the ? (question mark) or
* (asterisk) character, we need to type the ~ symbol before this character in
our search.
How to use the COUNTIF Function in Excel?
As a worksheet function, the COUNTIF Function can be entered as part of a
formula in a cell of a worksheet.
To understand the uses of the function, let us consider a few examples:
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