are the issues always the same (i.e is issue 1 always going to be "wrong type
of snow"

if so use the countif option to count how many times a issue is listed,


on sheet 2 where you have your results (and assuming that the row is row 6)

A B

Issue 1 =COUNTIF(Sheet1!E:E,Sheet2!B6)
Issue 2 =COUNTIF(Sheet1!E:E,Sheet2!B7)

ect


this would count the amount of times issue 2 occured in your list

"tmirelle" wrote:

Need to graph top 5 reasons over time

Column A..... Column E
Date Issue
04-06-2006 Issue 1
04-06-2006 Issue 2
04-06-2006 Issue 2
04-12-2007 Issue 5

need to (on separate sheet)
list the top 5 issues by the month & the number of times the occured, as below

Apr 06 ...Mayetc...Dec06
Issue 2 2 Issue 5 1
Issue 1 1

Ultimately will produce a graph, but they want to see the data.

Open to better suggestions on achieving but need help!