Because the * is acting as a wildcard.

--
__________________________________
HTH

Bob

"Jerry" wrote in message
...
I have had an inconsistent problem using Countif (Excel 2003) to find
duplicates in a column. I do not wish to remove them just count the
number
of times the item shows in the list.

The data column looks like this.

ID # Countif (Duplicate)
BW-CA-46**94-2227626 1
BW-CA-4614-*94-2227626 1
BW-CA-4**94-0358460 3
BW-CA-4213**94-1009696 1
BW-CA-4258**94-1009696 1
BW-CA-4505**94-0358460 1
BW-CA-4808--94-0358460 1

The Countif uses this =COUNTIF($I$5:$I$13,I5)
The first item also counts the second and the third counts the last two.
To
confuse me the 4th and fith do not count each other. When I replace the
**
with -- I get the correct result. Any Idea why the * or ** cause this
problem and does it occur in other functions.
--
Jerry