how do I count the unique text entries in a column

You can usethe match() function wrapped in iferror() and if() like this.

If the data is in column A then add a formula to column B. Assuming the first row is a header...

B2=IF(IFERROR(MATCH(A2, $A$1:A1,0), 0)>0,"", MAX($B$1:B1)+1)

this is shorthand for select cell B2, then type (or copy and paste the formula from here:

=IF(IFERROR(MATCH(A2, $A$1:A1,0), 0)>0,"", MAX($B$1:B1)+1)

select B2, copy

select column B, then hold the <command> key while you click cell B1 (to unselect), paste

D1=MAX(B)

cell D1 (in this example) indicates the number of distinct items.

If you just need the count (and not a list of unique values, in which case you would start with Wayne's setup and add an additional table) then you could also do this:

Formula in B2, copied down, is =IF(COUNTIF($A$1:A2,A2)=1,1,"")

This inserts a 1 for the first occurrence of a value, otherwise nothing.

Then, in B1, the forumula =SUM(B) gives the count of unique values.

SG

Hi RAMAGG,

This is essentially similar to the technique used in Wayne's example, but uses COUNTIF to determin if this is the first instance of a name in the list.

Two formulas:

B2, and filled down: =IF(COUNTIF($A$2:A2,A2)=1,MAX(B$1:B1)+1,"")

D1: ="Distinct Names: "&MAX(B)

Regards,

Barry

Or, if you will need to do this on different documents, you can copy this script into AppleScript Editor, select the cells in whichever document you are working on, and run. No need to set up the formulas and extra column again.

SG

--select range of cells, run; provides count of distinct values

tell application "Numbers" to tell the front document to tell active sheet

set selectedTable to (the first table whose class of selection range is range)

tell selectedTable to tell the selection range

set distinctValues to {}

repeat with aCell in its cells

tell aCell

if its value is not in distinctValues then ¬

copy its value to the end of distinctValues

end tell

end repeat

return count of distinctValues

end tell

end tell

--end of script