Use INDIRECT():

If A1 thru A6 contain:

qwerty
qwerty
qwerty
qwerty
asdf
asdf

and D1 contains A1:A6
and E1 contains qwerty

then

=COUNTIF(INDIRECT(D1),E1)


will display 4
--
Gary''s Student - gsnu200909


"tony" wrote:

using excel 2007
I am trying to set up a countif function that can easily be used by basic
excel users.

what i want to do is have a couple of cells where the users type the text
they want to search for and in which column, the countif formula would be in
a seperate cell and would use the user entered values as the 'range' and
'criteria' values. Basically a countif function that doesnt require the users
to manipulate the formula for each new search.

the data is held on sheet 1 (approx 1000 rows), the user will enter values
on sheet 2.
eg user types A:A and postgrad

Then countif formula picks up these values and counts on sheet 1, col A for
the entry 'postgrad'