Counting Consecutive Cells

[SteveC]

This works great: In Cell G2: =MATCH("Off",A4:E4,0)-1

ColA ColB ColC ColD ColE
ColG
Apples Apples Off Apples Off 2
Bannanas Bannanas Bannanas Bannanas Off 4
Coyotes Coyotes Coyotes Off Off 3
Elephants Elephants Elephants Elephants Off 4


Now someone please tell me what formula would work in ColG in the set below,
with ColG referencing ColA? If possible?

ColA ColB ColC ColD ColE
ColG
Apples Off Coyotes Apples Off 2
Bannanas Apples Elephants Bannanas Off 1
Coyotes Coyotes Off Off Off 3
Elephants Elephants Off Elephants Off 4

just curious if this is possible... thanks....

 

[Bob Phillips]

assuming the last one should be 2 not 4

=COUNTIF(A2:E2,"Off")

--
HTH

Bob Phillips

(replace somewhere in email address with gmail if mailing direct)

 

[SteveC]

Hi, thanks for your response. Looks like that formula is counting "off", but
what I really want is to count whatever is in cell A2 in the range A2:E5,
then return that value in G2. Then consecutively count whatever is in cell
A3 in the range A2:E5, and return that value in G3... etc... thanks very
much for your time... regards, SteveC

 

[Bob Phillips]

OK, so why is G3, looking for Bananas, only 1, not 2

--
HTH

Bob Phillips

(replace somewhere in email address with gmail if mailing direct)

 

[SteveC]

I undestand your question now. It's because I only want to count
consecutively, left to right. So if Bannanas is only in Col A and Col D, it
only counts 1.

E.g. counting X -- X is always in ColA

X Y Y Y 1
X Y X X 1
X X Y X 2
X X Y Y 2
X X X X 4

Thanks for taking a look...

 

[SteveC]

.... keeping in mind that the variables that we are matching to Col A are
randomly dispersed or even omitted in Col B, Col C and Col D, and we are
counting consecutively left to right...

 

[Bob Phillips]

Then I am confused where any of these numbers come form

ColA |ColB |ColC |ColD |ColE|ColG
Apples |Off |Coyotes |Apples |Off |2
Bannanas |Apples |Elephants|Bannanas|Off |1
Coyotes |Coyotes |Off |Off |Off |3
Elephants|Elephants|Off |Elephants|Off |4

Whys isn't it 1,1,1,1?


--
HTH

Bob Phillips

(replace somewhere in email address with gmail if mailing direct)

 

[SteveC]

ColA |ColB |ColC |ColD |ColE |ColG
Apples |Off |Coyotes |Apples |Off |2
Bannanas |Apples |Elephants |Bannanas |Off |1
Coyotes |Coyotes |Off |Off |Off |3
Elephants|Elephants|Off |Elephants |Off |4

Cell G2 looks for the number of consecutive times that anything in range
A2:E5 matches A2.

In other words:
ColA |ColB |ColC |ColD |ColE |ColG
Apples | | |Apples |Off |2
|Apples | | |Off
|
| | | |Off
|
| | | |Off
|

Cell G2 is referencing cell A2.

The Value "2" equals the number of consecutive times (left to right) that
"Apples" appears in range A2:E5.

In the case of "Apples" it's not 1, 1, 1, 1 but 1,1, , 1 and we get the
value "2"

thanks for your patience and help...

 

[Bob Phillips]

Sorry, but I am still not getting this.

Are you saying that Apples should be two because column A contains an Apple,
as does column B (irrespective of the fact that they are in different rows)?

--
HTH

Bob Phillips

(replace somewhere in email address with gmail if mailing direct)

ColA |ColB |ColC |ColD |ColE |ColG
Apples |Off |Coyotes |Apples |Off |2
Bannanas |Apples |Elephants |Bannanas |Off |1
Coyotes |Coyotes |Off |Off |Off |3
Elephants|Elephants|Off |Elephants |Off |4

Cell G2 looks for the number of consecutive times that anything in range
A2:E5 matches A2.

In other words:
ColA |ColB |ColC |ColD |ColE |ColG
Apples | | |Apples |Off |2
|Apples | | |Off
|
| | | |Off
|
| | | |Off
|

Cell G2 is referencing cell A2.

The Value "2" equals the number of consecutive times (left to right) that
"Apples" appears in range A2:E5.

In the case of "Apples" it's not 1, 1, 1, 1 but 1,1, , 1 and we get the
value "2"

thanks for your patience and help...

 

[SteveC]

Thanks for trying to figure this out.

Forget everything I just said. Let's start begin this way:

Example 1:
Count the number of times A is in the series A1:E5. You should Count 5.

Col A Col B Col C Col D Col E
Row1 A A
Row2 A
Row3 A
Row4 A
Row5

Example 2:
Now Count the number of consecutive times A appears in the series, starting
from ColA and finishing at ColE. The key word is "consecutive." You should
could count 2. This is because there is no "A" in Col C. The formula should
stop counting everything after the break in the series.

Col A Col B Col C Col D Col E
Row1 A
Row2 A
Row3 A
Row4 A
Row5

My question is, what formula in G1 will count the consecutive number of "As"
in the series A1:E5. That is, what formula will return a value of 2.

Thanks for taking a look...

(this is easily solvable via a sorting macro or multiple vlookups in A1:E5,
but I wanted to see if it's possible in the way described above...)

 

[Domenic]

I'm not sure this is what you're looking for, but try the following...

Insert > Name > Define

Name: BigNum

Refers to:

=9.99999999999999E+307

Click Ok

Then, try...

=LOOKUP(BigNum,CHOOSE({1,2},COLUMNS(A1:E5),MATCH(0,MMULT({1,1,1,1,1},--(A
1:E5="A")),0)-1))

 

[Domenic]

Make that...

=LOOKUP(BigNum,CHOOSE({1,2},COLUMNS(A1:E5),MATCH(0,MMULT(COLUMN(A1:E5)^0,
--(A1:E5="A")),0)-1))

 

[SteveC]

Domenic, thanks! That works if I input "A" anywhere in the range A1:E5.

Is there a way to make it work for any text value? It doesn't work with "B"
or "Apples", for example.

Thanks very much!
SteveC

 

[Domenic]

If your data does not contain numerical values, you could simply
replace...

="A"

with

<>""

Is this the case?

 

[SteveC]

Ok, that works now for one type of text value

But now when I had more than one text value, it doesn't distinguish between
the text values.

For example, Cell G22 below should return a value of 2, but it's currently
returning a value of 4.

ColA | ColB | ColC | Col D | ColE | ColF | Col G|
Apples | Bears | Apples | | | | 4
Bears | Apples | | Apples | | | 2
| | | Bears |

thanks a lot...

 

[Domenic]

It seems to me that Columns A through D each have at least one text
value. In this situation, I understood the correct result to be 4. And
if we deleted Apples from Column C, leaving Column C with no text
values, I understood the correct result to be 2. Isn't this correct?
If not, you'll need to clarify...

 

[SteveC]

Yes, that is correct... thanks!

It seems to me that Columns A through D each have at least one text
value. In this situation, I understood the correct result to be 4. And
if we deleted Apples from Column C, leaving Column C with no text
values, I understood the correct result to be 2. Isn't this correct?
If not, you'll need to clarify...