using COUNTIF and referencing outside cell.

[rgt27]

I've been trying to use the COUNTIF function to extract the number of occurrences of a particular word CONTAINED in a bunch of cells by referencing an outside cell. It works fine if I enter the search parameters manually like this: =COUNTIF(B2:B443,"*wabigoon*") but instead of entering 'Wabigoon' or something else, I want to reference a cell that contains the word Wabigoon or whatever other word I wish to search. Any thoughts?

 

[estevaoba]

Considering your data is in C8, try this:

[TABLE="width: 64"]
<tbody>[TR]
[TD="width: 64"]=COUNTIF(B2:B443,"*"&C8&"*")[/TD]
[/TR]
</tbody>[/TABLE]

 

[rgt27]

Thanks - I figured that out shortly after I sent. Also wanted to integrate dates and came up with =COUNTIFS(B2:B443,"*"&F2&"*",Table2[Circulation Date],">="&G3,Table2[Circulation Date],"<="&H3) which seems to work.
Problem solved!