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NFT: Question for anyone proficient at Microsoft Excel

Milton : 12/6/2017 9:29 am
For simplicity's sake, let's say you have a spread sheet with four columns (each representing a subject: Math, Science, English, History) and twelve rows (each representing an hour of the day: starting at 8AM and ending at 8PM), so there are 48 total cells that will either be filled with the name of a student or left empty.

Is it possible to have the spread sheet set up so that at the bottom of each column it adds up (or counts) every time a name is placed into a cell?

So, for example, if the teacher taught Alan, Andy, and Alice math for three hours of the day, and Bill and Bob science for two hours of that day, and Cathy history for one hour, the student's names would appear in the appropriate cell at the hour they were taught, and--most importantly--there would be a "3" at the bottom of the math column, a "2" at the bottom of the science column, and a "1" at the bottom of the history column (so there is a record of how many hours the teacher is spending teaching each subject).

Thanks for any help! I know spread sheets from back in the days of Lotus 1-2-3, so I'm not sure of the capabilities that today's versions offer.
Use the Count function at the bottom of each column.  
Section331 : 12/6/2017 9:32 am : link
That will count the cells that have characters in them.
RE: Use the Count function at the bottom of each column.  
Milton : 12/6/2017 9:35 am : link
In comment 13727233 Section331 said:
Quote:
That will count the cells that have characters in them.
Thanks!
I'm pretty sure COUNTIF and a wildcard will work  
Gatorade Dunk : 12/6/2017 9:35 am : link
Assuming you're using column 1 as a header, try =COUNTIF(A2:A13,"*")

If you're trying to log each name separately, you may need to chain together a few if conditions.
COUNTA  
Jim in Fairfax : 12/6/2017 9:37 am : link
=COUNTA(A2:A7)

Counts the number of nonblank cells in cells A2 through A7.

Note that the cell has to be truly blank, or it will get counted. Example: It will count a cell contains one blank space character.
RE: Use the Count function at the bottom of each column.  
Jim in Fairfax : 12/6/2017 9:40 am : link
In comment 13727233 Section331 said:
Quote:
That will count the cells that have characters in them.

COUNT won’t work for this. It only counts cells containing numerical values and he wants to count cells containing text (student names in his example)
Anyone else get scared when describing COUNT formulas to colleagues?  
Gatorade Dunk : 12/6/2017 9:42 am : link
One innocent typo and you're off to visit HR.
RE: RE: Use the Count function at the bottom of each column.  
Section331 : 12/6/2017 9:51 am : link
In comment 13727249 Jim in Fairfax said:
Quote:
In comment 13727233 Section331 said:


Quote:


That will count the cells that have characters in them.


COUNT won’t work for this. It only counts cells containing numerical values and he wants to count cells containing text (student names in his example)


You are correct, there are 2 COUNT functions, COUNT will count cells with numbers, COUNTA will count non-empty cells. COUNTA is the one Milton will want to use.
This isn't to be rude  
Flanker7 : 12/6/2017 10:03 am : link
but it's something I do all the time. If you ever have excel questions just google them describing it the best you can. You have no idea how many "intermediate" formulas and functions I've figured out just by googling my question, and then you don't have to wait for us to respond :)
Flanker  
Rocky369 : 12/6/2017 10:10 am : link
that is true of half of the NFTs here.
RE: Flanker  
Beer Man : 12/6/2017 10:27 am : link
In comment 13727312 Rocky369 said:
Quote:
that is true of half of the NFTs here.
True, but does Google provide the same entertaining and colorful answers that one receives from BBI?
Thanks everyone  
Milton : 12/6/2017 12:43 pm : link
It works!
p.s.--And I figured it was too detailed a question for simply googling but maybe I'm just not aware of how sophisticated Google has gotten.
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