Try these:

=COUNTIF(A1:A100,"PO-31233334/M8689901")

Or, use a cell to hold the criteria:

F1 = PO-31233334/M8689901

=COUNTIF(A1:A100,F1)

To count cells that contain 20 characters:

=SUMPRODUCT(--(LEN(A1:A100)=20))


--
Biff
Microsoft Excel MVP


"Picman" wrote in message
...
How do I count cells that contain a number of charctors or specific
criteria.
i have a column of cells that contain a range of values and i want to
count
only the cells that contain a specific type of value
(PO-31233334/M8689901)
vs (31233376/M8694101). If this is not possible then I'd like to count
cells
that contain a specific number of charactors (20).