That's kind of a hard question to answer!

Here's a good list of Excel related books:

http://contextures.com/xlbooks.html

You can also learn a lot right on this forum.

--
Biff
Microsoft Excel MVP


"DOUG" wrote in message
...
T.Valko, aka "Biff": Thank you very much. I believe I have learned a lot
today.

Q: Is there a dummed down reference page to tell me how the symbols come
together to form expressions? I have "VBA for Dummies", but even that is
somewhat over my head. I am just looking for a couple of pages of coding
guidance.

Sincerely,
DOUG ECKERT

"T. Valko" wrote:

the formula drives the product to a number and
then sums the number, yes?

Yes

the COUNTIFS did not work because it was interpreting
criteria to mean "OR" rather than "AND" and it appears
to be hardwired that way - although, you would think
specifying multiple criteria would default to "AND", as in,
"if this is true AND this is TRUE" and so on.

No, the COUNTIFS works on the logic of *AND*. That's why it didn't work.

B2 = Tues
B3 = x

=COUNTIFS(B2,"TUES",B2,"THURS",B3,"X")

Count if B2 = Tues and B2 = Thurs and B3 = x

B2 can't be both Tues and Thurs at the same time so:

TRUE * FALSE * TRUE = 0

An example of using "AND" logic on the same range is when testing numbers
(or dates/times) to be within a range. For example:

B2 = 10
B3 = x

Count if B2 =0 and B2 <=25 and B3 = x

B2 can be both =0 and <=25 at the same time.

=COUNTIFS(B2,"=0",B2,"<=25",B3,"x")

TRUE * TRUE * TRUE = 1

Speaking of the SUMPRODUCT function, please interpret this expression...
=SUMPRODUCT(--(F2<F$2:F$79),1/COUNTIF(F$2:F$79,F$2:F$79))+1

That formula produces counts (ranks) from highest to lowest and does it
so
that the counts (ranks) are consecutive.

F2 = 110 = 1
F3 = 110 = 1
F4 = 100 = 2

Using the RANK function the results would be:

F2 = 110 = 1
F3 = 110 = 1
F4 = 100 = 3

=SUMPRODUCT(--(F2<F$2:F$4),1/COUNTIF(F$2:F$4,F$2:F$4))+1

This expression will return an array of either TRUE or FALSE:

(F2<F$2:F$4)

110 < 110 = F
110 < 110 = F
110 < 100 = F

Because SUMPRODUCT sums the products we need to convert those T and F to
numbers. One to do that is through a math operation like we did in the
other
SUMPRODUCT formula. In this example we're using the double unary which
will
do the same thing:

--TRUE = 1
--FALSE = 0

So this array: --(F2<F$2:F$4) = {0;0;0}

SUMPRODUCT is based on array multiplication. We have the first array:
{0;0;0}, now we need another array to get our result.

We get the second array from this expression:

1/COUNTIF(F$2:F$4,F$2:F$4)

This is also the expression that allows for duplicate numbers to be
ranked
the same.

First we get a series of COUNTIFs:

COUNTIF(F$2:F$4,F$2) = 2
COUNTIF(F$2:F$4,F$3) = 2
COUNTIF(F$2:F$4,F$4) = 1

Then we divide these counts by 1. This is what allows the formula to rank
duplicate numbers the same.

1/2 = 0.5
1/2 = 0.5
1/1 = 1

Now we have the second array: {0.5;0.5;1}

=SUMPRODUCT({0;0;0},{0.5;0.5;1})

{0;0;0}*{0.5;0.5;1} = 0

Now, you might be thinking that a result of 0 doesn't make any sense.
Since
this example has been evaluating cell F2 which is the highest number in
the
range we know that none of the numbers to be ranked will meet this
condition:

(F2<F$2:F$4)

F2 (110) is not less than any number to be ranked. So the first array was
all 0s: --(F2<F$2:F$4) = {0;0;0}.

And we know that an array of all 0s will return 0 as the result of the
SUMPRODUCT function. But, that's why we add 1 at the very end of the
formula:

=SUMPRODUCT(0)+1

So, F2 (110) is ranked 1.

As the formula is copied down each number in the range gets evalauated
like
this and we end up with the final ranks of:

110 = 1
110 = 1
100 = 2

--
Biff
Microsoft Excel MVP


"DOUG" wrote in message
...
T.Valko and or Biff: Thank you very much. I understand what your are
saying, but not all of the terminology. Paraphrasing, the formula
drives
the
product to a number and then sums the number, yes? Also, the COUNTIFS
did
not work because it was interpreting criteria to mean "OR" rather than
"AND"
and it appears to be hardwired that way - although, you would think
specifying multiple criteria would default to "AND", as in, "if this is
true
AND this is TRUE" and so on.

Aside: Speaking of the SUMPRODUCT function, please interpret this
expression...

=SUMPRODUCT(--(F2<F$2:F$79),1/COUNTIF(F$2:F$79,F$2:F$79))+1

I use it to rank scores all the time and it is great, but I do not know
what
the expression means. (I think this came from Biff Biffenden or Gordon
Dibben originally).

Thanks a lot,
DOUG ECKERT




"T. Valko" wrote:

"PRODUCT" implies multiplication to me,
but that does not appear to be the case here.

Yes, that's what's happening. Here's how it works...

Let's use a small data sample:

...........B..........C..........D
2......Mon.....Tues.....Thurs
3.......x...........x...........x

=SUMPRODUCT((B2:D2={"Tues";"Thurs"})*(B3:D3="x"))

=2

These expressions will return arrays of either TRUE or FALSE:

(B2:D2={"Tues";"Thurs"})
(B3:D3="x")

It would look like this:

B2:D2 = Tues = FALSE,TRUE,FALSE
B2:D2 = Thurs = FALSE,FALSE,TRUE
B3:D3 = x = TRUE,TRUE,TRUE

These arrays are then multiplied together:

(B2:D2={"Tues";"Thurs"})*(B3:D3="x")

Performing any math operation on a logical value (TRUE, FALSE) will
coerce
the result to a numeric value.

TRUE * TRUE = 1
TRUE * FALSE = 0
FALSE * TRUE = 0
FALSE * FALSE = 0

So, here's how those arrays are multiplied together and the result:

B2:D2 = Tues = FALSE,TRUE,FALSE *
B3:D3 = x = TRUE,TRUE,TRUE =
{0,1,0}

B2:D2 = Thurs = FALSE,FALSE,TRUE *
B3:D3 = x = TRUE,TRUE,TRUE =
{0,0,1}

Now, when the formula calculates this produces one array like this:

{0,1,0;0,0,1}

So, if PRODUCT means to multiply then SUMPRODUCT means the SUM of
PRODUCTS.

The PRODUCTS are {0,1,0;0,0,1}
The SUM of those PRODUCTS are 0+1+0+0+0+1

So:

SUMPRODUCT({0,1,0;0,0,1}) = 2

=SUMPRODUCT((B2:D2={"Tues";"Thurs"})*(B3:D3="x"))

=2

Ok, now let's look at your formula and see why it didn't work:

=COUNTIFS(--(B2:D2),"TUES",--(B2:D2),"THURS",--(B3:D3),"X")

COUNTIFS does "straight comparisons" only. Using the double unary,
you're
attempting to "manipulate" the arrays and you can't do that in
COUNTIFS.
It
has to be the straight comparison:

=COUNTIFS(B2:D2,"TUES",B2:D2,"THURS",B3:D3,"X")

However, there's still a probem with that. Since the cells cannot hold
both
Tues and Thurs at the same time the result will always be 0. I'm not
sure
of
the "internal workings" of the COUNTIFS function but it can be
explained
the
same way as SUMPRODUCT is: array multiplication.

B2:D2 = Tues = FALSE,TRUE,FALSE
B2:D2 = Thurs = FALSE,FALSE,TRUE
B3:D3 = x = TRUE,TRUE,TRUE

But in this case the array multiplication is done a bit differently:

FALSE,TRUE,FALSE *
FALSE,FALSE,TRUE *
TRUE,TRUE,TRUE =
......0........0........0........

--
Biff
Microsoft Excel MVP


"DOUG" wrote in message
...
T. Valko: That worked like a charm. Thanks.

PS, Could you please explain it to me. I looked up the SUMPRODUCT
function
earlier today, based on your examples. "PRODUCT" implies
multiplication
to
me, but that does not appear to be the case here. Also, when I
tried
COUNTIFS earlier, it worked in one cell and not in another. The
version
of
it I showed above should have worked as far as I know. Would you
care
to
comment?

DOUG

"T. Valko" wrote:

Try it like this:

=SUMPRODUCT((B2:P2={"Tues";"Thurs"})*(B3:P3="x"))

What do the paired dashes mean, anyway

They can't be used in the COUNTIFS like you have them.

See this:

http://mcgimpsey.com/excel/formulae/doubleneg.html

--