Excel: How often does a value occur? How to find out

How many students come from Cologne? Questions like these can be answered quickly and conveniently in Excel using the COUNT IF function. Learn how to use the COUNT IF function to search your data set in Excel for a value and determine how often it occurs.

How often does a value occur? How to use the NUMBER IF function

With the NUMBER IF function, you can quickly and conveniently determine how often a search term you specify occurs in your data set.The syntax of the function looks like this:"=NUMBER IF(range; "search criteria")"

• In the "range" argument, specify the cell range that you want Excel to search.
• In order for Excel to know what you are looking for, you must specify a search term in the "search criteria" argument. This can be both numbers and text characters.
• As output, you get the number of matches found in the specified cell range with the search term.

Note that the COUNT IF function is not case-sensitive. Also, make sure that you do not include the cell where you place the function in the search range to avoid error messages.

Search and Replace - Search Document

The "Search and Replace" function also gives you the ability to search your Excel dataset for one or more search terms.

• You can call up the "Find and Replace" dialog via the shortcut [Ctrl] + [F].
• Unlike the NUMBER IF function, you can further narrow down the search criteria and, for example, specify that the search should also be case-sensitive.
• Furthermore, the Replace function gives you the option of replacing search results with new content.