How do I generate formula with column of text?

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Level 1

5 points

How do I generate formula with column of text?

I have a list of attendees to an upcoming party. Three columns - First Name, Last Name, Attendance.
In the "Attendance" column I have created drop down menues with 4 different text values regarding their attendance (Yes, No, Maybe, No Reply).

At the top of the page I would like to have a quick list table referencing the text values and count; would look like this:
Yes - 34
No - 12
Maybe - 24
No Reply - 13

How do I create this quick list with number count since the values in the "Attendance" column are text.

Thank you kindly!

Mac OS X (10.5.1)

Posted on Feb 23, 2011 3:30 PM

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Answer 1

Best reply

Badunit

Level 7

25,580 points

Feb 23, 2011 4:48 PM in response to beansupreme

You would do it with COUNTIF.

=COUNTIF(C,"yes") will give you the number of yeses, assuming you have nothing else in columns A,B,C other than your list of attendees and their responses. Otherwise you will have to use a range like C5:C20 in place of the C in the formula.

If your summary list is in columns E and F (for example) with the Yes, No, and the other possible answers listed in E, you could use the formula =COUNTIF(C,E) in the adjacent cells in column F.

Message was edited by: Badunit

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Answer 2

beansupreme Author

Level 1

5 points

Feb 23, 2011 5:55 PM in response to Badunit

YES! Thank you so much my friend. I thought it might be something with Countif, but I couldn't get it to work.

You're awesome! Thanks.

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Answer 3

beansupreme Author

Level 1

5 points

Feb 24, 2011 9:22 AM in response to Badunit

Okay hotshot, I'm stuck again.

Now I want to gather the number of "Yeses" from two different tables. This is what I have tried so far but am stuck: =COUNTIF(Terry Allen :: Attendance,Ron Allen :: Attendance,"Yes")

There error message I received was "Countif requires 2 arguments, but was given 3."

I do have a way around it; just use your previous formula to tally up the number of yeses at the bottom of each table, and then sum it all up, but I would rather just cut to the chase and have it formulate directly in my quick list table at the top of the page.

Any thoughts? Thanks.

Message was edited by: beansupreme

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Answer 4

Feb 24, 2011 9:48 AM in response to beansupreme

bs,

Your extension of the Countif function to add up occurrences in two different tables is outside the defined functionality of the tool. Just make a compound expression using two Countif expressions and add the results.

Using your example, you could write:

=COUNTIF(Terry Allen :: Attendance,"Yes") + COUNTIF(Ron Allen :: Attendance,"Yes")

Jerry

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Answer 5

beansupreme Author

Level 1

5 points

Feb 24, 2011 9:50 AM in response to Jerrold Green1

That's it exactly! Copy and paste, you nailed it. Thanks Jerry!

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Answer 6

Feb 24, 2011 9:57 AM in response to beansupreme

You're quite welcome.

Jerry

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