Give this formula a try (it should work for any text string, not just
individual special characters)...

=SUMPRODUCT(LEN(B1:B9)-LEN(SUBSTITUTE(B1:B9,"<","")))/LEN("<")

or, put the text to find in a cell, say, C1...

=SUMPRODUCT(LEN(B1:B9)-LEN(SUBSTITUTE(B1:B9,C1,"")))/LEN(C1)

Rick


"Gaurav" wrote in message
...
I have tried countif but it does not work.

so...if i have to count that in a column how many are there and how many
< are there...what function should be used?