What is the formula to count the number of cells that start with a particular
character? What I really want to do is count how the number of cells in a
column that start with a through e. I have tried several things but can't
quite come up with the magic formula. thanks for your help.

=COUNTIF(A1:A20,"A*")+COUNTIF(A1:A20,"B*")+COUNTIF(A1:A20,"C*")+COUNTIF(A1:A20,"D*")+COUNTIF(A1:A20,"E*")
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David Biddulph

"tagout" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:2B624B5C-E73A-4481-A3E7-(E-Mail Removed)...
> What is the formula to count the number of cells that start with a
> particular
> character? What I really want to do is count how the number of cells in a
> column that start with a through e. I have tried several things but can't
> quite come up with the magic formula. thanks for your help.

The COUNTIF Function should be used for that.

When using the Countif:

Countif(Select all the cells you want to review, What is the criteria you
want to count, e.g: "e*")


Hope this helps,

Vicente
"tagout" wrote:

> What is the formula to count the number of cells that start with a particular
> character? What I really want to do is count how the number of cells in a
> column that start with a through e. I have tried several things but can't
> quite come up with the magic formula. thanks for your help.