Do you want to count all the "Reds" that have "selected" in the adjoining
column?
Enter the color you're looking for in C1, and try this:

=SUMPRODUCT((A1:A1000=C1)*(B1:B1000="selected"))

--
HTH,

RD

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"mahmon" wrote in message
...
BRILLIANT IT WORKS! thanks for your help. one more question, how do then
cross reference to values in another column? i have a second coloumn that
has
either a blank of the word 'selected' in it. how do i then count all the
same
criteria but only if they are 'selected' ?

"Ron Rosenfeld" wrote:

On Sun, 26 Jun 2005 10:46:02 -0700, mahmon

wrote:

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

For "rng" you substitute the range which you are testing. So if your
data
(list of colors) is in C2:C1000, you would substitute C2:C1000 where I
have
written "rng".

Alternatively, you could NAME that range, "rng" and then you would not
have to
substitute anything.


--ron