Try...

=COUNTIF(A2:A100,"#Call*")

or

=COUNTIF(A2:A100,B2&"*")

....where B2 contains your criteria, such as '#Call'.

Hope this helps!

In article ,
kelljeff wrote:

I am trying to count the number of times a particular phrase appears in
a cell.

example: "#Call" is what I want to count.

however all the cells are formatted like #Callme-name,

Can any one help...