Bill,

Try

=COUNTIF(J1:J4,"*"&D3&"*")


--
Cordially,
Chip Pearson
Microsoft MVP - Excel
Pearson Software Consulting, LLC
www.cpearson.com



"Bill" wrote in message
...
WOW, wildcards! Never knew Excel had 'em! This is gonna change
LOTS of things for me...

How can I get it to work if, for example, x4 is in a table
cell?
ex: if cell D3 = x4

(I can't get "*D3*" to work)

THANKS!!!!

Bill


"Chip Pearson" wrote in message...
Bill,

Use the COUNTIF function. E.g,

=COUNTIF(J1:J4,"*x4*")


--
Cordially,
Chip Pearson
Microsoft MVP - Excel
Pearson Software Consulting, LLC
www.cpearson.com



"Bill" wrote in message
...
I need to count the occurrence of a string that would be
contained in text in a column.
For example, in column J, starting at cell 1,

J
1 x1 x4
2 x1 x2 x3
3 x2 x5
4 x3 x4 x6

(For example, cell J1 equals the text string "x1 x4".)

So, the answer to the number of times the string ''x4'
occurs
in J1:J4 is 2.

Is it even possible for this type of counting to be
performed
with an Excel formula?
How???

Thanks,

-Bill.