Thanks, Biff !
Yes, it works ok now

Still shorter, still not an array,
and still has less function calls! <g

Agreed <g
--
Rgds
Max
xl 97
---
GMT+8, 1° 22' N 103° 45' E
xdemechanik <atyahoo<dotcom
----
"Biff" wrote in message
...
Hi!

Think it's case sensitive, Biff
(unlike the longer, array formula <g)

If case and blank cells need to be considered:

=SUMPRODUCT(--(SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(LOWER
("0"&A1:A10),"trace",""),"*","")))

Still shorter, still not an array, and still has less
function calls! <g

Biff