You need to use an auxillary column C.

Put this formula into C1. Notice where the dollar signs ($) are located.

=SUMPRODUCT(--(A$1:A1="orange"),--(B$1:B1=B1))

This formula will put a 1 the first time a person with orange appears and
puut 2 the 2nd time the person appears on the list. Then you only have to
count the number of 1's with this formula

=COUNTIF(C1:C11,1)


"Noel" wrote:

I want to count the unique items in a list where a related field matches
another criteria. For example,

A B
1 orange bob
2 orange sue
3 orange hank
4 la ted
5 la ted
6 la ted
7 la joe
8 orange bill
9 orange deb
10 orange sue
11 orange bill

I want to count how many unique people there are in Orange.