Just in case you happen to prefer using Countif(), try this:

=SUM(COUNTIF(H3:H510,{"G","S","M"}))

--
HTH,

RD

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"NitaMax" wrote in message
...
Each day I want to be able to see how many boys and girls have
participated
in various activities. In order to make as user friendly for my colleague
as
possible I ask them to enter the data as follows in 1 column:

- G for girls
- S for Sports hall
- A for Art room
- M for Multipurpose area


The formula I used for the gender is =COUNTIF(H3:H510,"B"). I thought
that
I could have GSM in a cell and still us that formula and that Excel would
be
able to isolate each element.

Once more, it is not working.

I do not want to have to use countless columns. Any help would be grately
appreciated.

Thank you
--
NitaMax