Solved

COUNTIFS formula not counting correctly

Posted on 2013-06-05

Microsoft Excel

1 solution

Medium Priority

564 Views

Last Modified: 2013-06-06

Hello, I'm using:

=SUM(COUNTIFS($P:$P, "Program Planning & Policy",$O:$O, {"AZ","CA","DC","IN","LA","ME","MI","NC","NY","PR","TX","VT","WA"},$S:$S, {"Reg.","IS"}))

To try an count some data, however it seem if I try to add the add the additional criteria to the last range of "IS" the formula no longer works.... If I'm just counting for "Reg." or "IS" individually it counts correctly....

Why can't I count the last range for 2 criteria... is there an alternate work around apart from doing two COUNTIFS ala:

=SUM(COUNTIFS($P:$P, "Program Planning & Policy",$S:$S, "Reg.",$O:$O, {"AZ","CA","DC","IN","LA","ME","MI","NC","NY","PR","TX","VT","WA"}),COUNTIFS($P:$P, "Program Planning & Policy",$S:$S, "IS",$O:$O, {"AZ","CA","DC","IN","LA","ME","MI","NC","NY","PR","TX","VT","WA"}))
Dummy.xlsx

Comment

Question by:-Polak

[X]

Welcome to Experts Exchange

Add your voice to the tech community where 5M+ people just like you are talking about what matters.

Help others & share knowledge
Earn cash & points
Learn & ask questions

Join The Community

6 Comments

LVL 23

Expert Comment

by:NBVC

ID: 392230422013-06-05

It's because the criteria arrays aren't the same size....

Try:

=SUMPRODUCT((P1:P10="Program Planning & Policy")*(ISNUMBER(MATCH(O1:O10,{"AZ","CA","DC","IN","LA","ME","MI","NC","NY","PR","TX","VT","WA"},0)))*(ISNUMBER(MATCH(S1:S10,{"Reg.","IS"},0))))

adjust ranges to suit... but do not use unnecessarily large ranges.

LVL 50

Accepted Solution

by:barry houdini

barry houdini earned 2000 total points

ID: 392231182013-06-05

When you have 2 multi-element criteria ranges in COUNTIFS one needs to be separated by commas and one by semi-colons (assuming UK/US regional settings), so if you change the last comma , to a semi-colon ; your original formula will work, i.e.

=SUM(COUNTIFS($P:$P, "Program Planning & Policy",$O:$O, {"AZ","CA","DC","IN","LA","ME","MI","NC","NY","PR","TX","VT","WA"},$S:$S, {"Reg.";"IS"}))

If you have 3 or more multi-element criteria you need to use something like NB_VC's suggestion

regards, barry

LVL 1

Author Closing Comment

by:-Polak

ID: 392231542013-06-05

Thanks for the in-depth explaination of "why" and the cleaner solution.

LVL 23

Expert Comment

by:NBVC

ID: 392231772013-06-05

Hey barry,

Thanks.. you taught me something too :)

LVL 50

Expert Comment

by:barry houdini

ID: 392232592013-06-05

Thanks, note that even if the criteria arrays are the same size like this:

=SUM(COUNTIFS(A:A,{"a","b","c"},B:B,{"x","y","z"}))

then with comma separators for both you will only count a/x, b/y and c/z combinations. To count all combinations you still need to have commas for one and semi-colons for the other like this:

=SUM(COUNTIFS(A:A,{"a";"b";"c"},B:B,{"x","y","z"}))

regards, barry

LVL 23

Expert Comment

by:NBVC

ID: 392235362013-06-05

Oh, I see. Thanks again for elaborating. When I tested I got the correct result without realizing that they were aligned as you mentioned. :)

Featured Post

Question has a verified solution.

If you are experiencing a similar issue, please ask a related question

Excel code to find and report on links in the selected ActiveWorkbook (formulas, range names, pivotTables & charts)

Article by: Dave

A little background as to how I came to I design this code: Around 5 years ago I designed an add-in that formatted Excel files to a corporate standard, applying different cell colours and font type depending on whether the cells contained inputs,…

Microsoft Excel

MS Excel - using the Hyperlink formula

Article by: Thomas

Do you use a spreadsheet like Microsoft's Excel? Have you ever wanted to link out to a non excel file on your computer or network drive? This is the way I found to do it!

Building Probability Models in Excel Part 6: Investment Modeling Using a Log-Normal Distritribution

Video by: Toby

The viewer will learn how to create a normally distributed random variable in Excel, use a normal distribution to simulate the return on an investment over a period of years, Create a Monte Carlo simulation using a normal random variable, and calcul…