I know about the formula
=SUM(1/COUNTIF(A1:A10,A1:A10))
for counting the number of distinct (text) entries in the range A1:A10
(where there are no blanks).

What I need is a worksheet formula to do a similar job, but only taking into
consideration rows where B1:B10 contain "a".
So, the following data would give a result of 4.
John a
Fred a
Sally
Jane
Jane a
John a
Fred
Alan a
Tim
Alan a

Any suggestions, please?

Stephen