Using The Countif And Countifs Functions In Excel 2007

The COUNTIF function enables us to count the number of cells in a given range which satisfy a condition. COUNTIFS does exactly the same. However, with COUNTIFS, we can specify multiple criteria. For instance, let's say we have a worksheet containing four columns: the date, the number of phone calls received, the number of complaints and the percentage of calls which were actually complaints.

We now want to create a summary worksheet to calculate the number of days where the percentage of calls that were complaints is, firstly, under 5%; secondly, between five and 10% and, thirdly, over 10%.

To find those days where there were fewer than 5% or more than 10%, we can use COUNTIF function because we are dealing with a simple condition: less than 5% or greater than 10%. However, to find those days where there were between 5% and 10%, we will need to use multiple criteria; firstly, greater than or equal to five and, secondly, less than or equal to 10. For this reason, we will need the COUNTIFS function.

When creating formulas, it is always useful to give names to the ranges of cells are you are referencing. To allow Excel create the names for you automatically, select all of your data, including the column headings then, in the Formulas Tab of the Excel Ribbon, click on Create from Selection. Switch on the option "Create names from values in the Top Row" and click OK. Let's assume that the heading at the top of the fourth column (the one containing the percentage of calls which were actually complaints) is "Percentage", this would be the name that we would use in our COUNTIF formulas.

Next, we can switch to the Summary worksheet and click in the cell where we want to calculate the total number of days where less than 5% of our calls were complaints. Here we would enter the formula =COUNTIF(Percentage,"10").

Finally, to work out the total number of days where between 5 and 10% of our calls were complaints, we would use the formula =COUNTIFS(Percentage,">=5",Percentage,"=5"; criteria range 2 is also Percentage; and criteria 2 is "