In this lesson, I’m going to be showing you how to:
- Understand, what the COUNTIF function is used for in Excel
- Insert a COUNTIF function in Excel
Download the Excel file below, and save it onto your computer. So you can complete this lesson with me.
Go ahead, open the video below and watch the tutorial at your own pace:
If I have not covered everything in this lesson, please leave a comment or your question below and I will get back to you. (you may have to scroll down past other lovely peoples comments)
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When you’re ready move onto:
Lesson 53: COUNTIF function used to COUNT MULTIPLE different items in a column in Excel | COUNTIF+COUNTIF
Or go back to:
Lesson 51: How to use FILTER DATA in Excel | Number Filters: Greater Than Or Equal To | Less Than
Lesson 50: How to LINK data and ADD up cells from a DIFFERENT WORKBOOK in Excel
Lesson 49: How to LINK data and ADD up cells from MULTIPLE different worksheets in Excel
Lesson 48: How to Hide & Unhide Worksheets in Excel | Hide Worksheets, so it CANNOT be unhidden easily in Excel!
Lesson 47: How to Hide & Unhide Rows & Columns in Excel | Hide & Unhide Multiples Columns & Rows in Excel
Lesson 46: Find & Replace in Excel | What is Match Case & Match Entire Cell Contents in Excel
Lesson 45: How to apply borders around and in-between cells in Excel | Difference between borders & Gridlines in Excel
Lesson 44: Use the IF function to work out if you are over BUDGET or not in Excel
Lesson 43: How to change a DATE to different FORMATS in Excel
Lesson 42: How to set and print rows & titles automatically at the top of each page in Excel
Lesson 41: How to display and print GRIDLINES and ROW & COLUMN HEADINGS in Excel
Lesson 40: How to MOVE a chart to a new worksheet on its own in Excel | Name the new worksheet in Excel
Lesson 39: How to insert a LINE chart with MARKERS in Excel | Select non-adjacent data in Excel
Lesson 38: How to add DATA LABELS to charts in Excel | Change colour of pie-chart segments in Excel
Lesson 37: How to CHANGE the CHART from one TYPE to another in Excel | Column chart to Pie chart in Excel
Lesson 36: Best method to COPY a CHART to a new worksheet in Excel | Making sure data is LINKED with the new chart!
Lesson 35: How to insert a NEW worksheet in-between 2 worksheets in Excel | Rearrange and Rename worksheets in Excel
Lesson 34: What is the PLOT & CHART AREA on a chart in Excel | How to SHADE the plot area in a chart in Excel
Lesson 33: How to insert an Embedded Clustered Column Chart in Excel | What is a Clustered Chart?
Lesson 32: What is Scale to Fit in Excel | How to use Scale to Fit (shrink pages) in Excel
Lesson 31: Relative OR Absolute references in Excel | Everything explained | Confusion solved!
Lesson 30: Best method to format numbers to display as PERCENTAGES in Excel
Lesson 29: Everything you need to know about ABSOLUTE cell references before replicating a formula in Excel
Lesson 28: A simple DIVISION formula in Excel | How to DIVIDE in Excel
Lesson 27: What is the thousand separator in Excel | How to use the thousand separator in Excel
Lesson 26: Use the AUTOSUM button to quickly ADD up cells in Excel | What is the Autosum Button in Excel?
Lesson 25: Everything you need to know about FREEZING PANES (rows & columns) in Excel | What is Freeze panes?
Lesson 24: How to SORT data in ASCENDING order in Excel
Lesson 23: Best techniques to widen columns & adjust the height of rows in Excel
Lesson 22: How to RENAME a worksheet in Excel
Lesson 21: How to COPY cells from one spreadsheet to another spreadsheet in Excel
Lesson 20: How to select multiple NON-ADJACENT cells in Excel | What are the benefits?
Lesson 19: What is a Workbook and Worksheet in Excel | What is the difference between a workbook and worksheet in Excel?
Lesson 18: What is a Formula and Function in Excel | What is the difference between a formula and function in Excel?
Lesson 17: How to PRINT the spreadsheet SHOWING the formulas and functions in Excel
Lesson 16: What is Page Orientation in Excel | Change Portrait orientation to Landscape in Excel
Lesson 15: Format the Font colour in Excel | Shade a range of cells to any colour in Excel
Lesson 14: How to insert a HEADER in Excel? | How to insert an AUTOMATIC FILENAME in the header?
Lesson 13: How to Format cells as Currency, Date, Percentages and apply Decimal Places to numbers in Excel
Lesson 12: Wrap Text in Excel | Break Text to Multiple Lines | Shrink to Fit
Lesson 11: Merge & Center in Excel | Merge Across | Merge Cells
Lesson 10: How to use the INSERT FUNCTION command in Excel
Lesson 9: Simple Subtraction Formula in Excel
Lesson 8: Using the COUNT and COUNTIF function to count ONLY the cells, which contains TEXTUAL data
Lesson 7: Count & CountA function in Excel | Difference between Count and CountA function in Excel
Lesson 6: MIN & MAX function in Excel | Find the Minimum and Maximum value within a range in Excel
Lesson 5: Average Function in Excel | What does Average mean
Lesson 4: Multiplication Formula in Excel | Replicate or Copy Formulas in Excel
Lesson 3: Formatting Cells in Excel | Make a Spreadsheet look visually attractive
Lesson 2: SUM function in Excel | Entering Text & Numbers | FREE Series of Microsoft Excel Lessons
Lesson 1: Introduction to Microsoft Excel | Excel Interface | FREE Series of Microsoft Excel Lessons (pdf guide included)
Hope you are enjoying your learning 🙂
Habib Ali – ICT Tutor

Such a thorough insight into Excel. Wow.
Have u done a series on Microsoft word too? i would love to learn some tips and tricks on that as well.
Aparna
Thank you. Yes I will be doing tutorials on Microsoft Word, they are on my to-do list.
Hope to see you there soon.
Habib (ICT Tutor)
Thanks for yet another comprehensive tutorial. You make everything seem so easy and simple
Thank you for your feedback.
All the best to you.
Habib (ICT Tutor)
Hello Habib, thank you for your post. I really like it because you share some tips and tricks on Excel, and this is what we need almost everyday. Even Microsoft has instruction with it, but still that’s not the case like yours here. And the point is, you share with us “step-by-step”. This is good, especially teaching with videos and make it more easier. Keep going and wish I can read your posts about sharing Tips and Tricks on Excel, perhaps on MsWords in future.
Hello Ling,
Many thanks for your detailed feedback about my video tutorials on Microsoft Excel and I’m glad to hear they are working for you. I like to keep it as easy and simple as possible so it’s easier for everyone to understand.
I am in the process of making videos on Microsoft Word, Publisher, PowerPoint etc. They will be published on our website and YouTube channel.
Habib (ICT Tutor)
Hi, Habib!
Excel has a huge range of functions that can make work easier, but first you need to gain knowledge of how to use these functions at all. I use some basic functions in my daily work, and now I’ve discovered your site where you perfectly represent the use of options in videos, and I’m very excited!
Thank you for sharing this useful knowledge with us!
Nina
I’m really glad to hear this.
Keep learning and you can also share my lessons with your family and friends so they can benefit from it.
Best Regards
Habib (ICT Tutor)
Thank you for showing us how the COUNTIF function in Excel works. I always wondered. It´s very similar to the SUM function, however, you can specify exactly what you want to count when a list contains more than one type of item. I like this, it´s really handy. Thank you for showing us.
You are welcome. Thank you for your feedback.
All the best to you
Habib (ICT Tutor)
Hello Habib – I really appreciate you make learning these tips and tricks easy. I especially enjoyed learning the “Absolute and Relative” features and how to work the function option. This is really great info that makes Excel so much easier for me. Thank you very much Habib.
Hi Nancy,
Thank you so much for your lovely feedback. It’s very uplifting and therefore highly appreciated.
Keep visiting our website and YouTube channel for many more upcoming contents.
Best regards
Habib (ICT Tutor)
You are doing a fine thing providing us your training on Excel, you are helping us to learn so much quicker than if we was learning this on our own. I find it is easy to learn from your website and your videos, and I hope you will be able to keep this website available for all of us for a very long time
Jeff
Hi Jeff,
Many thank for your feedback. I’m so glad to hear my Excel video tutorials have been useful for you. I have many more contents planned for our website and YouTube channel.
Rest assured, I don’t have any plans to remove any of my video tutorials from our website or YouTube channel.
Best wishes to you
Habib (ICT Tutor)
Thankyou for the great explanation of how to use the COUNTIF function in excel. I think this could be useful to know in the future..
Another great clear lesson.
That’s good to know Amy. I’ve got many more useful videos planned in the future so please keep visiting my channel for that.
Best Regards
Habib (ICT Tutor)
Thank you again
Your tutorials are so helpful as I use them to help my baby brother to be able to do his homework as they are always working on excels and Microsoft word which is hard to do.
I will be using this for his next assignment
That’s a fantastic news Thabo. Hopefully my Excel video tutorials are helpful for your brother too.
All the best
Habib (ICT Tutor)
Thanks for that information. Excel has so much information that it is at times overwhelming. Your article helped explain things.
Hi John,
Thank you for your amazing feedback.
Keep visiting our website and YouTube channel for more amazing contents.
Best wishes
Habib (ICT Tutor)
The COUNTIF function in Excel is very useful and was explained beautifully in today’s lesson. You even answered a question that I thought of while I was watching the video, which is a sign of a great teacher.
Thank you for another great lesson. Keep up the great work!
Michael
Hi Michael,
Many thanks fr your comment and lovely feedback. It’s highly appreciated.
I’m grateful to know my Excel tutorial are useful for you.
Please keep visiting our site and YouTube channel for many more upcoming contents.
Habib (ICT Tutor)
Another excellent video Habib! I have learned so much recently from your exceptional YouTube Videos. Really glad I subscribed. Keep up the good work.
That’s amazing to know. I’ve many more amazing contents planned for our website and YouTube channel so please keep visiting us.
Many Thanks
Habib (ICT Tutor)
Excel has a huge amount of functions that are great to use to make a workflow easier. Thanks for your explanation, Habib, as always clear and easy to follow. 🙂
Hi Hannie,
Thank you for your feedback. Yes you are right, and I’ve made quite alot of videos on this topic. Please check it out on our website and YouTube channel.
Best Regards
Habib (ICT Tutor)
Hi Habib,
I have learned this function before when I had to demonstrate that I know how to use Excel for a job presentation. It is very well explained in your video and I wish I found it back then when I was looking to learn about it.
Kind regards,
Yoana
Hi Yoana,
Thank you for your feedback. Hopefully it’s still relevant for you.
All the best
Habib (Ict Tutor)
Hi Habib,
This and all your lessons are so helpful to me. The work I do on excel spreadsheets definitely needs the COUNTIF function as I work in the rail industry, in the engineering function. We need to look at failed systems and how many times they fail over a certain amount of time, and this will help me to determine the system that needs the most attention really quickly. I am going to share this article with a few colleagues too because they need the same amount of help that I do.
Thank you for sharing and keep up the great work.
All the best,
Tom
Hi Tom,
Many Thanks for your feedback. Microsoft Excel is highly beneficial in a work like yourself where you are comparing the data etc. Glad to know your colleagues would benefit from their amazing video lessons on Excel.
Keep learning and sharing the knowledge.
All the very best
Habib (ICT Tutor)
Hi there,
This seems like a useful tool. Pardon me, this is my first time learning about COUNTIF. Something I should keep in mind for future use. Thank you for the informative post.
Hi Sarina,
Thank you for your comment and feedback.
Hopefully it will be useful for you in the future. Keep an eye out for many more useful video tutorials on our website and YouTube chanell.
All the best
Habib (ICT Tutor)
Great video Habib!
I have using excel quite a lot but I wasn’t that familiar with COUNTIF function. It’s always good to learn new excel skills because it enables you to do exactly what you want without spending too much time.
I’ll go and check out your other videos as well!
Thanks,
Joonas
Thank you Joonas for your comment and feedback. Excel is an amazing tool to learn and apply in your everyday life. It can save you a lot of time.
I’ve got many more videos coming up on my YouTube channel, please keep an eye out on that.
Habib (ICT Tutor)
Countif is really clever function. I will again definitely follow your second option with insert function, seems quick and no need to remamber the formula. Thanks!
That’s great to know Olga. There are many more interesting videos coming up, so please keep an eye out for them.
Best Regards
Habib (ICT Tutor)
Habib,
Very informative tutorial! I actually wish I had found this long ago when I was a General Manager of the largest liquor store up here since I had to run a lot of reports with Excel and the basic count function wasn’t always what I needed.
I’ve saved this video in case I forget this down the road. Thanks!
Katrina
Hi Katrina,
Thank you for your lovely feedback. Glad it’s been useful for you. Please visit our site and YouTube channel for more upcoming videos.
Habib (ICT Tutor)