Try this:

=SUMPRODUCT(--(TRIM(D$2:D$200)=TRIM(B2)))

If this works then that means you have leading/trailing spaces in either the
range or the comparison cell or even both.

Biff

"Blah" wrote in message
oups.com...

Biff wrote:
"Blah" wrote ...
I have two columns of names, they include commas seperating last first
etc...how to I do a text comparision function to see if a cell in
column 1 is in the range of cells in column two one cell at a time?
thanks..
Countif doesn't seem to work

How are you using Countif?

=COUNTIF(B$1:B$100,A1)

Or:

=ISNUMBER(MATCH(A1,B$1:B$100,0))

Biff

Using

=COUNTIF(D$2:D$200, B2)



Abajian, Aaron Christopher

won't match with
Abajian, Aaron Christopher


even though they are on B2 and D2 respectively