I guess this is just one of those unexplainable nuances that Excel throws at
us every now and then!

Biff

"Domenic" wrote in message
...
In article ,
"Biff" wrote:

Got it!

=INDEX(List,MATCH(0,INDEX(COUNTIF(A$1:A1,List),,1) ,0))

Nice!

So it looks like the reason COUNTIF(...) alone doesn't work is that it
actually returns a single value, whereas INDEX(COUNTIF(...),,1) returns
a single element array.

So maybe the reason why...

=MATCH(0,A1,0)

...works is that the reference to A1 is actually considered a single
element array. Does it make sense?