Frequency of occurrence

[Guest]

I'm working with a spreadsheet with results of medical tests that report on
the results. I'm trying to determine how many times all the parasites are
found. The results are words and not coded into numbers. Do i use the
frequency tool? how do i use it? or is there something else that works?

Thank you so much,
Lindsay

 

[Dave O]

You might try the COUNTIF() function, which will count words in a
range. For instance, if the range A1:A6 looks like this:

alpha
bravo
charlie
alpha
bravo
charlie

.... you can use a COUNTIF() to count all the occurences of "alpha" like
this:
=COUNTIF(A1:A6,"alpha")
This will yield the answer: 2.

Does that do it for you?

 

[Guest]

Thanks. Is there any way i could find out how many times all the variables
show up instead of doing them each separately?

Thanks,
Lindsay

 

[Dave Peterson]

Are all the entries in one column?

Make sure your data has a header row, then take a look at data|pivottables.

Select your range
data|pivottable
follow the wizard until you get to the dialog that has a Layout Button on it.
click that Layout button.

Drag the header to the row field
drag the header to the data field (yep, twice!)

Finish up the wizard.

If you change your data, rightclick on the pivottable and select Refresh Data.

Some tips...

If your list can grow/contract, use a dynamic range that represents the range.
Take a look at Debra Dalgleish's site to read more about it:
http://www.contextures.com/xlNames01.html#Dynamic

If you want to read more about the pivottable stuff, you may want to look at
some links:

Debra Dalgleish's pictures at Jon Peltier's site:
http://peltiertech.com/Excel/Pivots/pivottables.htm
And Debra's own site:
http://www.contextures.com/xlPivot01.html

John Walkenbach also has some at:
http://j-walk.com/ss/excel/files/general.htm
(look for Tony Gwynn's Hit Database)

Chip Pearson keeps Harald Staff's notes at:
http://www.cpearson.com/excel/pivots.htm

MS has some at (xl2000 and xl2002):
http://office.microsoft.com/downloads/2000/XCrtPiv.aspx
http://office.microsoft.com/assistance/2002/articles/xlconPT101.aspx