In this formula, (A1:A999B1:B999) will return an array of 999 values, each
of which is TRUE or FALSE. Each minus sign simply multiplies these values
by -1 (hence the two together effectively multiply by 1) which coerces TRUE
to be 1 and FALSE to be 0. This is necessary as SUMPRODUCT only works with
numbers.

The formula works fine for me. As a way of looking into the problem, I
suggest temporarily changing the ranges to something much smaller, for
example
=SUMPRODUCT(--(A1:A9B1:B9))

If you highlight part of a formula in the formula bar and press F9, you see
the result of that part of the formula. (Press ESC to get out of this mode,
as pressing ENTER would put the result permanently into the formula!)

So, using your example data, if you highlight (A1:A9B1:B9) and press F9 you
would expect to see
{FALSE;FALSE;TRUE;FALSE;TRUE;TRUE;FALSE;TRUE;TRUE}

Now highlight --(A1:A9B1:B9) and press F9 and you would expect to see
{0;0;1;0;1;1;0;1;1}

This technique will help you to understand what the formula is doing and may
well lead you to see what is wrong.

"Ravi" wrote in message
...
I was given the following answer,=SUMPRODUCT(--(A1:A999B1:B999)) , for the
question, and for this I have got the answer as zero, please find the
example below. Anyhow I didn't understood the two ' -' mentioned in the
answer.

A B
78 791
98 1384
357978 1534
31 31857
751 316
364987 3165
35 357
323 157
47 31






Ravi" wrote in message
...
I am trying to count how many times the value in Col A has exceeded the
value
in Col B in a given range, How to get this

One way (adjust range lenth to suit):
=SUMPRODUCT(--(A1:A999B1:B999))




"Ravi" wrote:

Earlier I have asked a question whether we can find the count of number
of
times the value increased Col A when compared to Col B in a given range,
the
answer given did not work