Return the count of a selected string from dropdown in Excel

Question

I have a column which takes input from a List (A, B, C, D) How to obtain the number of times that 'A' has been selected in this column?

Answer 1

Let's say your data is in column A.

It has many rows and there are only four different types of entries, like this:

There are several ways you can count how many apples or bananas are in the list.

Option 1 - a formula To prepare for that, create a list of the four fruit types in cells C1 to C4, with apples, bananas, oranges and cherries as the values. Then in D1 enter the formula

=COUNTIF(A:A,C1)

Copy the formula down. The result should look like this:

Option 2 - Pivot table

Click anywhere within column a, then click Insert > Pivot Table. Drag the data field into the row area and drag the data field again into the Values area. The result will look like this:

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