How about a Pivot Table? Select your data, then Data Pivot Table. When
you get to the layout, drag the column header for items into the Rows field
AND into the data field. Check the label on the item in the data field; if
is isn't 'Count of xxxx', double-click it and change the 'summarize' function
to Count.
Caveat regarding Pivot Tables: if your data changes, the Pivot won't
refresh automatically; right-click the table and select Refresh Data.

"Ralph" wrote:

Hi,

Is there a way to select a table and have excel produce a list ranking the #
of times each item shows up in the list, i.e.

dog 5
cat 2
bird 1
???

Thanks