The COUNTIF function is a statistical function in Excel that counts the number of cells that meet a certain criterion or condition. The function takes two arguments: the range of cells to count and the criteria that controls which cells should be counted. The syntax of the COUNTIF function is as follows: =COUNTIF(range, criteria). For example, =COUNTIF(A2:A5,"London") counts the number of times the word "London" appears in the range A2:A5. The criteria can be a number, expression, cell reference, or text string that determines which cells will be counted. The COUNTIF function supports logical operators and wildcards for partial matching.
It is important to note that the COUNTIF function only supports a single condition. If you want to use multiple criteria, you can use the COUNTIFS function instead. The COUNTIFS function applies criteria to cells across multiple ranges and counts the number of times all criteria are met.
In summary, the COUNTIF function is a useful tool in Excel for counting cells that meet a certain criterion or condition. It takes two arguments, the range of cells to count and the criteria that controls which cells should be counted. The COUNTIFS function can be used if you want to use multiple criteria.
