Can I recognize the specific letters in a cell using formulas?

[Stevo]

How can I recognize the first 2 letters in a cell using formulas? I want to
be able to recognize cells which contain certain initials from employees.
Example would be if C1=SS Glass, C2=AF Metal and C3=SS Paper, I need to know
that SS had 2 entries.

I am using Office 2003 w/ SP3.

Thanks,

Steve

 

[Pete_UK]

You can use this:

=LEFT(C1,2)

to extract the first 2 characters of cell C1, and then copy it down.
In another cell you could have:

=COUNTIF(C:C,"SS")

to count the number of SS values.

Hope this helps.

Pete

 

[Mike H]

Hi,

Try this

=SUM(IF(LEFT(C1:C20,2)="ss",1,0))

It's an array so commit with Ctrl+Shift+Enter

Mike

 

[Ron Rosenfeld]

How can I recognize the first 2 letters in a cell using formulas? I want to
be able to recognize cells which contain certain initials from employees.
Example would be if C1=SS Glass, C2=AF Metal and C3=SS Paper, I need to know
that SS had 2 entries.

I am using Office 2003 w/ SP3.

Thanks,

Steve

=COUNTIF(C1:C3,"SS *")

or, with some initials in D1

=COUNTIF(C1:C3,D1 & " *")
--ron