Hi,

I'm looking for a way to get a count of unique entries across multiple
columns of data. Say for example I had (with semi-colons indicating
the columns A B and C):
Smith;John;H
Smith;John;K
Smith;Catherine;
Jones;John;
Jones;Susan;L
Jones;Susan;B

I want to be able to get a count of:
(a) all the unique surnames/families (for the above example it's 2:
Smith and Jones). I think I have done this using a formula I found on
the web, which is =SUMPRODUCT((A1:A6<"")/COUNTIF(A1:A6,A1:A6&""))
(b) all the unique combinations of surname and first name (in the
above example it's 4, Smith, John; Smith, Catherine; Jones, John and
Jones, Susan)
(c) all the unique combinations of surname, first name and middle
initial. However, I don't want to count those without an initial i.e.
where the cell is blank. So for the above example I want the answer 4:
Smith, John H; Smith, John, K; Jones, Susan L; Jones, Susan B).

I just need running counts of these different categories as I add data
and I don't want to use filters. Can this be done with functions? I'd
really appreciate any help.


Thanks very much,
Michelle