Nice trick - I'll file that for future use!

"Biff" wrote in message
...
Hi!

Assume you want to limit the range A1:A20 to a maximum of 3 E's or 2 L's.

Select the range A1:A20
Goto DataValidation
Allow: Custom
Formula: =AND(COUNTIF(A$1:A1,"E")<=3,COUNTIF(A$1:A1,"L")<=2 )

Biff