COUNTA, COUNTIF, and COUNTIFS Tutorial

In this tutorial, I demonstrate the various ways you can count different cells. I use a simple example of a birthday party where each partygoer gets a goodie bag, a blue or pink plate based on whether they are a boy or a girl, and either a cupcake or ice cream for dessert. We use the various formulas for counting to solve each of these counting necessities.

We start out by using the COUNTA formula to count the total number of partygoers. This formula will only count cells that are not blank.

Next, we want to count the number of boys and the number of girls. This information will tell us how many blue and pink plates we will need. For this scenario, we will use the COUNTIF formula as we will need to only count the cells that pertain to the what we are looking for, which is either “Boy” or “Girl”.

Lastly, we will need to determine how many boys and girls will each have either ice cream or cupcakes. This information will help the host prepare the exact plate and dessert combinations needed. For this scenario, we will use the COUNTIFS formula as we will need to count the cells based on two different criteria (gender and dessert preference).

Although these formulas may seem a bit basic, I use them frequently and in conjunction with other formulas. I guarantee these formulas will come in handing as you build more complex models.

You can access the tutorial HERE

Happy Modeling!