=COUNTIF(range,"A")

Where range would be a column or row that would contain the character.A for
absence.

You will need a formula for each character.


Gord Dibben MS Excel MVP


On Wed, 16 Dec 2009 14:10:01 -0800, Vicki B
wrote:

I used Excel to track student attendance for a class this summer and used one
character to indicate attendance, another absence, a third for cancellation,
etc... Is there a way to query how many of each of these characters appear
in the spreadsheet?