example of Data
--------------------
Col A Col B (By using CONCATENATE function)
A a,a,b,d
B d,d,c,a
C b,h,r

what i need in Col C is based on the criteria in Col A how many unique
entries are there in Col B, i.e.
if Col A = B then how may unique records are there in Col B, Answer is 3
(d,c,a)

what formula should i use for this,
NOTE : Col B each Concatenated entry is seperated by a ","

Where are you concatenating from?

I would think that it's easier to count unique entries in distinct cells
rather than in one

"Rajat" wrote:

example of Data
--------------------
Col A Col B (By using CONCATENATE function)
A a,a,b,d
B d,d,c,a
C b,h,r

what i need in Col C is based on the criteria in Col A how many unique
entries are there in Col B, i.e.
if Col A = B then how may unique records are there in Col B, Answer is 3
(d,c,a)

what formula should i use for this,
NOTE : Col B each Concatenated entry is seperated by a ","

concatenating from another 5 different sheets
i need to count unique entries from the Col - B

is there any way to do that,

reagrds
Rajat

If your data is in A1, try

=SUMPRODUCT(--(FREQUENCY(FIND(MID(A1,ROW(INDIRECT("1:"&LEN(A1))) *2-1,1),A1),FIND(MID(A1,ROW(INDIRECT("1:"&LEN(A1)))*2-1,1),A1))0))


This is based on your data being separated by a comma (without spaces).
This part of the formula pulls the 1,3, 5, 7, etc, characters

ROW(INDIRECT("1:"&LEN(A1)))*2-1

If your data contained no separators, this part of the formula changes to
ROW(INDIRECT("1:"&LEN(A1)))



"Rajat" wrote:

example of Data
--------------------
Col A Col B (By using CONCATENATE function)
A a,a,b,d
B d,d,c,a
C b,h,r

what i need in Col C is based on the criteria in Col A how many unique
entries are there in Col B, i.e.
if Col A = B then how may unique records are there in Col B, Answer is 3
(d,c,a)

what formula should i use for this,
NOTE : Col B each Concatenated entry is seperated by a ","

You have a solution provided the items in column B are all 1 character long,
if not your problem becomes more complicated and maybe should be handled by a
custom function.

--
Cheers,
Shane Devenshire


"Rajat" wrote:

example of Data
--------------------
Col A Col B (By using CONCATENATE function)
A a,a,b,d
B d,d,c,a
C b,h,r

what i need in Col C is based on the criteria in Col A how many unique
entries are there in Col B, i.e.
if Col A = B then how may unique records are there in Col B, Answer is 3
(d,c,a)

what formula should i use for this,
NOTE : Col B each Concatenated entry is seperated by a ","

Thanks, I forgot to add that caveat.


"ShaneDevenshire" wrote:

You have a solution provided the items in column B are all 1 character long,
if not your problem becomes more complicated and maybe should be handled by a
custom function.

--
Cheers,
Shane Devenshire


"Rajat" wrote:

example of Data
--------------------
Col A Col B (By using CONCATENATE function)
A a,a,b,d
B d,d,c,a
C b,h,r

what i need in Col C is based on the criteria in Col A how many unique
entries are there in Col B, i.e.
if Col A = B then how may unique records are there in Col B, Answer is 3
(d,c,a)

what formula should i use for this,
NOTE : Col B each Concatenated entry is seperated by a ","

Hi ShaneDevenshire & JBM

Thanks for your help. And wish you a Happy New Year.

As you said this formula works on 1 character long text,
But can you please gave me the formula if the concatenated text contain
multiple character including space (Rajat Roy,JB M,Shane Devenshire) each
entry will be seperated by a "," (comma)

thanks in advance,

Regards
Rajat

On Sun, 31 Dec 2006 02:15:00 -0800, Rajat wrote:

example of Data
--------------------
Col A Col B (By using CONCATENATE function)
A a,a,b,d
B d,d,c,a
C b,h,r

what i need in Col C is based on the criteria in Col A how many unique
entries are there in Col B, i.e.
if Col A = B then how may unique records are there in Col B, Answer is 3
(d,c,a)

what formula should i use for this,
NOTE : Col B each Concatenated entry is seperated by a ","

This will work on any string sequences that are separated by ",".

Download and install Longre's free morefunc.xll add-in from
http://xcell05.free.fr/

Then use this array-formula. To enter an array formula, hold down
<ctrl<shift while hitting <enter. Excel will place braces {...} around the
formula:

=COUNTDIFF(REGEX.MID(A1,"[^,]+",ROW(
INDIRECT("$1:"&REGEX.COUNT(A1,"[^,]+")))))

If the strings might be longer than 255 characters, a VBA function can be used
to mimic the above.




--ron

Ron Rosenfeld wrote...
....
Download and install Longre's free morefunc.xll add-in from
http://xcell05.free.fr/

Agreed.

Then use this array-formula. To enter an array formula, hold down
<ctrl<shift while hitting <enter. Excel will place braces {...} around the
formula:

=COUNTDIFF(REGEX.MID(A1,"[^,]+",ROW(
INDIRECT("$1:"&REGEX.COUNT(A1,"[^,]+")))))
....

Avoid volatile functions. One possibility would be using MOREFUNC's
INTVECTOR function rather than ROW(INDIRECT(...)), but for short
strings, I'd just use

=COUNTDIFF(EVAL("{"""&SUBSTITUTE(A2,",",""",""")&" ""}"))

On 2 Jan 2007 09:17:01 -0800, "Harlan Grove" wrote:

Avoid volatile functions.

Thanks for the tip, but could you explain why?


--ron

Ron Rosenfeld wrote...
On 2 Jan 2007 09:17:01 -0800, "Harlan Grove" wrote:
Avoid volatile functions.

Thanks for the tip, but could you explain why?

Because formulas calling volatile functions are recalculated every time
anything triggers any recalculation. For example, the nonvolatile
formula =SUM(A1:A4) recalcs only when cells in A1:A4 change, so Excel
won't recalc this formula when you enter something into cell X99 if
none of the cells in A1:A4 depend on X99. However, Excel will
recalculate the formula =SUM(INDIRECT("A1:A4")) whenever you enter
anything into any cell, even if A1:A4 were blank. Lots of formulas
calling volatile functions kills recalc speed.

I'd point to Charles Williams's DecisionModels site, but I'm having
problems accessing it.

On 2 Jan 2007 12:29:41 -0800, "Harlan Grove" wrote:

Because formulas calling volatile functions are recalculated every time
anything triggers any recalculation.

Thanks for the explanation.

I should read Williams stuff. http://www.decisionmodels.com/ should be the web
page but it seems to be inaccessible at this time.
--ron

On Tue, 02 Jan 2007 07:37:00 -0500, Ron Rosenfeld
wrote:

On Sun, 31 Dec 2006 02:15:00 -0800, Rajat wrote:

example of Data
--------------------
Col A Col B (By using CONCATENATE function)
A a,a,b,d
B d,d,c,a
C b,h,r

what i need in Col C is based on the criteria in Col A how many unique
entries are there in Col B, i.e.
if Col A = B then how may unique records are there in Col B, Answer is 3
(d,c,a)

what formula should i use for this,
NOTE : Col B each Concatenated entry is seperated by a ","

This will work on any string sequences that are separated by ",".

Download and install Longre's free morefunc.xll add-in from
http://xcell05.free.fr/

Then use this array-formula. To enter an array formula, hold down
<ctrl<shift while hitting <enter. Excel will place braces {...} around the
formula:

=COUNTDIFF(REGEX.MID(A1,"[^,]+",ROW(
INDIRECT("$1:"&REGEX.COUNT(A1,"[^,]+")))))

If the strings might be longer than 255 characters, a VBA function can be used
to mimic the above.




--ron


Based on Harlan's critique, the following formula would be more efficient:

=COUNTDIFF(REGEX.MID(A1,"[^,]+",
INTVECTOR(REGEX.COUNT(A1,"[^,]+"),1)))


--ron

Harlan,

I have found, by adding a messagebox to a UDF and making it volatile, that
it fires everytime *any* entry is made anywhere - even if it is not in the
active sheet. Can you tell me if the same also applies to Excel volatile
functions? I can't think of any way of checking that in an Excel function.

--
Regards,


Sandy
In Perth, the ancient capital of Scotland
and the crowning place of kings


with @tiscali.co.uk

Sandy Mann wrote...
I have found, by adding a messagebox to a UDF and making it volatile, that
it fires everytime *any* entry is made anywhere - even if it is not in the
active sheet. Can you tell me if the same also applies to Excel volatile
functions? I can't think of any way of checking that in an Excel function.
....

It's the Volatile setting that causes it to recalc all the time. Note
that cell entry triggers minimal recalc, which triggers recalculation
of volatile functions.

Yes, built-in volatile functions behave the same as volatile UDFs.

Use the following to test that.

Function foo()
MsgBox Prompt:=Application.Caller.Address(0, 0, xlA1, 1),
Title:="Called from"
End Function

This is NOT volatile.

Enter =foo() in A1. You'll see a dialog box and the formula will return
0 (actually it returns the VBA variant value Empty, which is treated
the same as the 'value' of blank cells - Excel converts it to 0). Then
enter =RAND()+foo() in A2. You'll see another dialog - just one - and
it'll return a random number between 0 and 1. Now enter anything in
cell A3. You'll see another dialog for cell A2, but not for A1. Now
press [Ctrl]+[Alt]+[F9]. This time you'll see two dialogs, one for A1
and the other for A2.

Now clear A1:A2 and enter the following:

A1:
1

A2:
2

A3:
3

A4:
foobar

C1:
=SUM(A1:A4)+foo()

D1:
=SUM(INDIRECT("A1:A4"))+foo()

Now repeatedly enter anything in cell A6. Each time you should only see
a dialog for cell D1.

Thank you for that Harlan,

I found that on my XL97 [Ctrl]+[Alt]+[F9]. did nothing - must be me being
the poor cousin again :-(

I did however experiment an bit further and found that if in your last test
I entered =Sheet2!A1 in A3, I then got two dialogs, one for D1 and one for
C1, whenever I changed the value in Sheet2!A1 but only one for D1 if I
re-entered the same value again. I suppose that it is obvious really but it
had not occurred to me that linking sheets like that would cause the
function to fire even although it was not volatile or the active sheet.

I was naively thinking that C1 would only recalculate when the sheet became
active. That explains the performance problems I had with a workbook that I
wrote for my previous employer, (I have now retired), where I had 14 sheets
linked together in various ways.

--
Thank you again.

Sandy
In Perth, the ancient capital of Scotland
and the crowning place of kings


with @tiscali.co.uk

I think Harlan and Ron have a good solution. Looks like I've got more
homework to do (learning how to use Laurent's add-in functions).

I would certainly try the other suggestions first as the add-in offers a
number of other functions that look like they'd be handy.

If, by chance, you cannot use it (e.g. your workplace won't allow the add-in
to be installed), you could try a UDF. Post back if that's what you need and
I'll post one (if someone else has not done so).



"Rajat" wrote:

Hi ShaneDevenshire & JBM

Thanks for your help. And wish you a Happy New Year.

As you said this formula works on 1 character long text,
But can you please gave me the formula if the concatenated text contain
multiple character including space (Rajat Roy,JB M,Shane Devenshire) each
entry will be seperated by a "," (comma)

thanks in advance,

Regards
Rajat

Dear Ron Rosenfeld

thanks for the help and i'm extremely sorry for the late reply
The following formula provided by you worked well
=COUNTDIFF(REGEX.MID(A1,"[^,]+",INTVECTOR(REGEX.COUNT(A1,"[^,]+"),1)))

but i'm having problem when there is only 1 text the formula show the text
not the number i.e.

When Cell A Contain - Formula Result
Roy,Roy,b,c - 3
Roy,,, - Roy

i need to count the unique text entry in the cell, can you please solve it,

Regards

Rajat

Dear Harlan Grove

thanks a lot for your help and extremely sorry for the late response.

Regards

Rajat

On Wed, 3 Jan 2007 06:42:00 -0800, Rajat wrote:

Dear Ron Rosenfeld

thanks for the help and i'm extremely sorry for the late reply
The following formula provided by you worked well
=COUNTDIFF(REGEX.MID(A1,"[^,]+",INTVECTOR(REGEX.COUNT(A1,"[^,]+"),1)))

but i'm having problem when there is only 1 text the formula show the text
not the number i.e.

When Cell A Contain - Formula Result
Roy,Roy,b,c - 3
Roy,,, - Roy

i need to count the unique text entry in the cell, can you please solve it,

Regards

Rajat

That is an interesting issue. I will discuss it with Longre. The issue seems
to be that the single item is not being returned as an array-constant, so
COUNTDIFF apparently returns the item, and not the count.

However, a work around, which forces the single item to be returned as an
array, would be to use the ARRAY.JOIN function:

=COUNTDIFF(ARRAY.JOIN(REGEX.MID(A1,"[^,]+",
INTVECTOR(REGEX.COUNT(A1,"[^,]+"),1))))

This seems to work as well as the previous.


--ron

Dear Ron Rosenfeld

I've a problem in this formula also, following formula return value 1 when
cell is blank cell A1 value nil as a result of CONCATENATE function i used in
cell A1

=COUNTDIFF(ARRAY.JOIN(REGEX.MID(A1,"[^,]+",INTVECTOR(REGEX.COUNT(A1,"[^,]+"),1))))

When Cell A Contain - Formula Result
Roy,Roy,b,c - 3
Roy,,, - 1
,,,, - 1

in Cell A i used formula =CONCATENATE(Z1,Y1,X1,K1)
Is there any other work around?

Regards

Rajat

another point i forgot to mention after entering the last formula in the cell
a Msg Box appear which is as follows -

Title : Microsofy Visual Basic
Body Message : User-defined type not defined
Button : Ok , Help

is the formula problem is due to this or any other matter? Hope that you can
solve it.

regards

Rajat

On Wed, 3 Jan 2007 12:28:02 -0800, Rajat wrote:

Dear Ron Rosenfeld

I've a problem in this formula also, following formula return value 1 when
cell is blank cell A1 value nil as a result of CONCATENATE function i used in
cell A1

=COUNTDIFF(ARRAY.JOIN(REGEX.MID(A1,"[^,]+",INTVECTOR(REGEX.COUNT(A1,"[^,]+"),1))))

When Cell A Contain - Formula Result
Roy,Roy,b,c - 3
Roy,,, - 1
,,,, - 1

in Cell A i used formula =CONCATENATE(Z1,Y1,X1,K1)
Is there any other work around?

Regards

Rajat

What is happening:

When the REGEX returns nothing, as it will if A1 is empty, then the ARRAY.JOIN
returns a #VALUE! error. COUNTDIFF then counts that as one unique entry.

To correct that problem, we will exclude the #VALUE! error from being counted:

=COUNTDIFF(ARRAY.JOIN(REGEX.MID(A1,"[^,]+",
INTVECTOR(REGEX.COUNT(A1,"[^,]+"),1))),,#VALUE!)

The formula will now return a 0.


--ron

On Wed, 3 Jan 2007 12:35:03 -0800, Rajat wrote:

another point i forgot to mention after entering the last formula in the cell
a Msg Box appear which is as follows -

Title : Microsofy Visual Basic
Body Message : User-defined type not defined
Button : Ok , Help

is the formula problem is due to this or any other matter? Hope that you can
solve it.

regards

Rajat

I cannot reproduce this error message. Perhaps more detail?


--ron

Ron Rosenfeld wrote...
....
To correct that problem, we will exclude the #VALUE! error from being counted:

=COUNTDIFF(ARRAY.JOIN(REGEX.MID(A1,"[^,]+",
INTVECTOR(REGEX.COUNT(A1,"[^,]+"),1))),,#VALUE!)
....

An alternative would be to prevent the error. One option, which
excludes empty fields and returns 0 for blank cells or cells evaluating
to "",

=COUNTDIFF(EVAL("{"""&SUBSTITUTE(A1,",",""",""")&" ""}"),,"")

And an alternative regex formula would be

=COUNTDIFF(REGEX.MID(A1&",","[^,]+",INTVECTOR(REGEX.COUNT(A1&",,",","),1)),,"")

But maybe the direct approach makes more sense.

=IF(WORDCOUNT(A1,","),COUNTDIFF(REGEX.MID(A1,"[^,]+",
INTVECTOR(WORDCOUNT(A1,","),1))),0)

Harlan Grove wrote...
....
But maybe the direct approach makes more sense.

=IF(WORDCOUNT(A1,","),COUNTDIFF(REGEX.MID(A1,"[^,]+",
INTVECTOR(WORDCOUNT(A1,","),1))),0)

Failed to test that with a single field in A1. Make that

=IF(WORDCOUNT(A1,",")<2,WORDCOUNT(A1,","),
COUNTDIFF(REGEX.MID(A1,"[^,]+",INTVECTOR(WORDCOUNT(A1,","),1))))

On 3 Jan 2007 15:03:28 -0800, "Harlan Grove" wrote:

Ron Rosenfeld wrote...
...
To correct that problem, we will exclude the #VALUE! error from being counted:

=COUNTDIFF(ARRAY.JOIN(REGEX.MID(A1,"[^,]+",
INTVECTOR(REGEX.COUNT(A1,"[^,]+"),1))),,#VALUE!)
...

An alternative would be to prevent the error. One option, which
excludes empty fields and returns 0 for blank cells or cells evaluating
to "",

=COUNTDIFF(EVAL("{"""&SUBSTITUTE(A1,",",""",""")& """}"),,"")

And an alternative regex formula would be

=COUNTDIFF(REGEX.MID(A1&",","[^,]+",INTVECTOR(REGEX.COUNT(A1&",,",","),1)),,"")

But maybe the direct approach makes more sense.

=IF(WORDCOUNT(A1,","),COUNTDIFF(REGEX.MID(A1,"[^,]+",
INTVECTOR(WORDCOUNT(A1,","),1))),0)


All work. I'd still like to see COUNTDIFF return a 1 with a single element not
enclosed in an array constant.


--ron

Now its not showing on my sheet, After i added the ARRAY.JOIN part of the
formulae this message box was shown. Thanx for your help once again.

Regards
Rajat

"Ron Rosenfeld" wrote:

On Wed, 3 Jan 2007 12:35:03 -0800, Rajat wrote:

another point i forgot to mention after entering the last formula in the cell
a Msg Box appear which is as follows -

Title : Microsofy Visual Basic
Body Message : User-defined type not defined
Button : Ok , Help

is the formula problem is due to this or any other matter? Hope that you can
solve it.

regards

Rajat

I cannot reproduce this error message. Perhaps more detail?


--ron

Dear Harlan and Ron

Thanks a lot for providing the formulae, both the formula worked well
without any problem.

Regards

Rajat