Finding total Combinations of a Build Order

[emad95]

I need to produce the instances of a build sequence by product line.
Most products are assembled in the same order but outliers exist. I need to count the number of outliers.
Sample:

Products buildSequence
Product1 MaterialA
Product1 MaterialB
Product1 MaterialC
Product1 MaterialD
Product2 MaterialA
Product2 MaterialB
Product2 MaterialC
Product2 MaterialD
Product3 MaterialB
Product3 MaterialD
Product3 MaterialA

I would want to see that the data indicates that two buildSequences exist:
MaterialA
MaterialB
MaterialC
MaterialD

And

MaterialB
MaterialD
MaterialA

Is this possible without stepping into some VB?

 

[JackDanIce]

Welcome to the board.

You can copy the data to another column
Use Data -> Remove duplicates on the copied column
Use COUNTIF next to the unique column to count instances of the values e.g.

=COUNTIF($C$1:$C$500,D1)

Adjust range to suit

 

[emad95]

Thanks JackDanIce,

I don't think that I follow the proposed solution (or I've misstated my question).
Wouldn't coping the material over to a new column and removing the duplicates also eliminate the ability to see the build sequence?

 

[JackDanIce]

In that case you could use a pivot table or break the data into the separate products and copy into new columns, remove duplicates and then use a count if function or see if this link helps: http://chandoo.org/wp/2009/11/10/excel-sumproduct-formula/