Thread: Count cells
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S Muzumdar[_2_] S Muzumdar[_2_] is offline
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Default Count cells

Yes, that helps. Thanks a lot.

"Ron Coderre" wrote:

In this formula: =SUMPRODUCT(--(A1:A10&D1:D10="1A"))

this section: (A1:A10&D1:D10="1A")
returns a series of boolean (fancy word for: TRUE/FALSE) values
....which are not numeric to Excel.

When an arithmetic operator (+,-,*,/) is applied to a boolean value,
Excel converts TRUE to 1 and FALSE to 0.

The standard convention is to use
the Double-Minus (--) to convert the values.
It works this way:
TRUE=TRUE
-TRUE = -1
--TRUE = 1

FALSE = FALSE
-FALSE = 0
--FALSE = 0

Now, you could easily use 1*TRUE, but the Dbl-Minus indicates to
knowledgable users that you are forcing a conversion and not
trying to calculate something.

So, In the formula, the TRUE/FALSE values are converted to 1's and 0's
by the "--" and the SUMPRODUCT calculates the total.

Does that help?
--------------------------

Regards,

Ron
Microsoft MVP (Excel)
(XL2003, Win XP)



"S Muzumdar" wrote in message
...
Works like a charm.... Thanks.

Quick question - what does the "--" between two parantheses do ?