To count specific text in Excel is not a difficult task. It can be done via the famous COUNTIF formula. Previously, we have used COUNTIF formula under two cases as follows:
- How to Count Cells between Two Numbers in Excel
- Count the Number of Excel Records That Fall Between Two Dates
How to Count Specific Text in Excel
In order to do this task, you can use the following formula:
=COUNTIF($C$4:$C$13,”*1995*”)
Explanation
The first part in the brackets are the range in which Excel will search for the required data which we have inserted in the inverted commas. So, the formula is self-explanatory.
Example
We have been given following data for the students of a school:
| S. No | Student | Reg # |
| 1 | John | 2006UTIL |
| 2 | Cena | 2006HXYT |
| 3 | Kalim | 2007ZTUS |
| 4 | William | 2009HGTL |
| 5 | Jagdesh | 1999FTHE |
| 6 | Salman | 2003HGSA |
| 7 | Rose | 2001HGTL |
| 8 | Sita | 1995GBTL |
| 9 | Bill | 2003BGVF |
| 10 | Michael | 2015TRFQ |
We have been told to produce a report that shows up number of students registered in each year. Apparently, this task seems quite difficult and time consuming, but this can be done via the power of COUNTIF within few minutes.
As you can see that we have used the COUNTIF formula in above Excel workbook. First, we mentioned the range at which Excel find the data according to the criteria set in next part which is under inverted comma.