sorry max, your formula was perfect, i just didn't realize it in time to
avoid making a fool of myself ~!~

"justjill111" wrote:

in other works, for the below example, how do i get a count of 4 instead of 8?

"justjill111" wrote:

sorry but it returned the entire count. let me be more specific.
the names are contained E7:E98 the column looks something like this:

jane
max
ditto
ditto
ditto
laurie
kelly
ditto

does this help?

"Max" wrote:

One thought ..
Assuming your source data running down in col A
you could use this in say, B1:
=COUNTA(A:A)-COUNTIF(A:A,"*"&"ditto"&"*")
voila? zonk YES below
--
Max
Singapore
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