COUNTIF works fine and when I try it with the data you posted, this
formula...

=COUNTIF(Sheet3!E:E,"=2000BC")

returns 2, as it should. I don't know why you are getting 0, so I can't help
you with that part; however, I thought you might be interested in knowing
that this formula...

=COUNTIF(Sheet3!A:A,"=2000BC")+COUNTIF(Sheet3!B:B, "=2000BC")+COUNTIF(Sheet3!C:C,"=2000BC")+COUNTIF(S heet3!D:D,"=2000BC")+COUNTIF(Sheet3!E:E,"=2000BC")

can be replaced with this much shorter one...

=COUNTIF(Sheet3!A:E,"2000BC")

Notice that you don't need the equal sign in front of the string constant
that you are checking for.

--
Rick (MVP - Excel)



"Isis" wrote in message
...
Hi,

A B C D E
2000BC DEF DEF DEF 2000BC
ABC 2000BC DEF 2000BC DEF
2000BC 2000BC 2000BC 2000BC 2000BC
ABC 2000BC DEF DEF DEF

This normally works but Im having a problem with it now. My formula
looks like this
=COUNTIF(Sheet3!A:A,"=2000BC")+COUNTIF(Sheet3!B:B, "=2000BC")+COUNTIF(Sheet3!C:C,"=2000BC")+COUNTIF(S heet3!D:D,"=2000BC")+COUNTIF(Sheet3!E:E,"=2000BC")
The column range is a lot of lines ie reason why I use column:column, the
last countif was added & it returns answer as 0 instead of adding 2
more-if I
change the formula to only read =COUNTIF(Sheet3!E:E,"=2000BC") it gives
me a
0.

Is there an alternate formula or is there an error with column thats not
calculating?

thx