COUNTIF for a word within a phrase

[Nanaia]

I'm trying to count the number of times a word appears within a phrase. Each row lists an action taken by an agent (i.e. Policy: Transfer / Sellers). I'm trying to use COUNTIF to count how many of the row contain a specific word, like "Transfer" but it keeps giving the result as zero. I tested it and if "Transfer" is the only word in the cell it counts like I want it to. How do I get it to search the entire cell and pick out the word I'm trying to count when it doesn't show up the same number of characters from the left/middle/right in every occurence?

 

[James006]

Hi,

If my understanding is correct ... your specific word appears several times in a given cell ...

=(LEN(cell)-LEN(SUBSTITUTE(cell, specific_word,"")))/LEN(specific_word)

Hope this will help

 

[Nanaia]

Close. It occurs one time within the cell however it is included in with other information in the cell. The range I am searching is hundreds of cells.

An example of what information is in the cells is; Reference: CSC / SYSKA Alerts,Policy: Transfer / Concession Abuse Prevention

My end goal is to count the number of cells that contain a specific word - like the word "Transfer".

 

[James006]

Have you tested the formula on a practical example ... ?

 

[Nanaia]

Have you tested the formula on a practical example ... ?

Yes. I cannot get it to provide the correct result unless the word I'm looking for is the ONLY word contained in the cell. What I'm seeking from this forum is whether there is a way to search hundreds of cells that contain strings of words. I am wanting to search within the string of words in each cell for a specific word and count how many cells contain the word I'm searching for. Similar to CTRL+F FIND ALL

 

[James006]

You could test following:

=SUMPRODUCT((LEN(yourRange)-LEN(SUBSTITUTE(yourRange,specific_word,"")))/LEN(specific_word))

Hope this will help

 

[Nanaia]

Your formula provides accurate results. Thank you.
What is the function of using SUBSTITUTE in it?

 

[James006]

You are welcome

SUBSTITUTE allows to replace a string by another one ...

see https://support.office.com/en-us/article/SUBSTITUTE-function-6434944E-A904-4336-A9B0-1E58DF3BC332

 

[Nanaia]

Thank you. I understand what it does though. What I was trying to understand was its use in the formula example provided because I didn't need anything replaced, only counted.

 

[James006]

In order to come up with the proper count ...

Your specific word is replaced by nothing ... which allows thanks to the change of lenght ... to work out the number of instances ...

Hope this clarifies