COUNTIF limitations, alternatives?

[Steve]

I'm entering the results of a survey into Excel. The answer to one of the
questions was a number from 1-6. I entered all the data, then used COUNTIF
to tell me how many respondents entered 1, how many 2, how many 3, etc.

Now I'm getting the next survey coming back, almost the same results, but
respondents are allowed to tick multiple boxes. So someone may enter 1 and 4
and 6 to the same question!

Can I enter something like 1,4,6 in the same column and still get a
breakdown of how many respondents ticked each number? I don't think COUNTIF
can handle this.

TIA

Steve

 

[Niek Otten]

use multiple columns and sum multiple COUNTIFs

--
Kind regards,

Niek Otten
Microsoft MVP - Excel

| I'm entering the results of a survey into Excel. The answer to one of the
| questions was a number from 1-6. I entered all the data, then used COUNTIF
| to tell me how many respondents entered 1, how many 2, how many 3, etc.
|
| Now I'm getting the next survey coming back, almost the same results, but
| respondents are allowed to tick multiple boxes. So someone may enter 1 and 4
| and 6 to the same question!
|
| Can I enter something like 1,4,6 in the same column and still get a
| breakdown of how many respondents ticked each number? I don't think COUNTIF
| can handle this.
|
| TIA
|
| Steve
|

 

[Bob Phillips]

=SUMPRODUCT((COUNTIF(A:A,{1,4,6})))

--
HTH

Bob

(there's no email, no snail mail, but somewhere should be gmail in my addy)

 

[Jim May]

Bob, you obviously can't substitute in for the 1,4,6 Cells F1, F2,
F3(containing the 1,4 and 6).

 

[Bob Phillips]

Yeah you can

=SUMPRODUCT((COUNTIF(A:A,F1:F3)))

--
HTH

Bob

(there's no email, no snail mail, but somewhere should be gmail in my addy)

 

[Mike Middleton]

Steve -

Regarding alternatives: If you want to use a pivot table to summarize
results, you should change your "database" to have six columns of tick vs.
no tick for that question's responses instead of having only one column for
the original mutually exclusive response.

- Mike Middleton
http://www.DecisionToolworks.com
Decision Analysis Add-ins for Excel