rng is the range, mahmon. So if your colors are in A1:A10, then replace rng
with A1:A10.

Microsoft describes this solution he
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/q268001/

*******************
~Anne Troy

www.OfficeArticles.com
www.MyExpertsOnline.com


"mahmon" wrote in message
...
Thanks cant seem to get that to work dont know of its me, i am quite new
to
excel. what do i put in place of rng? Wwhat i want to do is for excel to
look
down the list and count the number of different colours without me having
to
input any of the values in the function

"Ron Rosenfeld" wrote:

On Sun, 26 Jun 2005 08:55:04 -0700, mahmon

wrote:

I have databse of products, one colum contains text values for the
colours
these products are, red, green , blue, etc. what functinocan tell me
how many
colours are in the column? help please

If there are no blanks in your range:

=SUM(IF(FREQUENCY(MATCH(rng,rng,0),MATCH(rng,rng,0 ))0,1))

If there may be blanks, then use the *array* formula:


=SUM(IF(FREQUENCY(IF(LEN(rng)0,MATCH(rng,rng,0)," "),IF(LEN(rng)0,MATCH(rng
,rng,0),""))0,1))

To enter an *array* formula, after typing or pasting it into the cell,
hold
down <ctrl<shift while hitting <enter.


--ron