thanks for your reply but i cannot make it work.

The formula with the countif is the following:

=COUNTIF('[MDR.xls]Drwgs'!$H:$H,"p")

where MDR is the other file, h is the column where i look for the data (the
letter P in this particular occasion)

if I just substitute COUNTIF with SUMPRODUCT it doesn't work....







"Bob Phillips" wrote:

Use SUMPRODUCT instead

=SUMPRODUCT(--(book_reference=value))

--
HTH

Bob Phillips

(replace somewhere in email address with gmail if mailing direct)

"massi" wrote in message
...
Hi, i have created a sheet that uses countif for data of other
spreadsheets.
is there a way to retrieve the data without opening all the the source
data
files each time?
cheers