In addition to what Biff suggested, perhaps a Pivot Table would also
produce what you need?

http://www.contextures.com/xlPivot05.html#TopItems

--JP

On Feb 2, 11:30*am, Brymor wrote:
Using Office 2003.
In my weatherstation data, [very long listings *over 12 months x 4 readings
per day ], *the wind's direction changes are listed as:-
NORTH, NE,SE,SE,EAST,ENE,WSW,SOUTH,SE,EAST, NW, WNW, and so on.
I would like to find a formula that will tell me the most prolific word in
the column list.
I hope that someone can help me here.
Thanks and kind regards,

Brymor