COUNTIF showing inconsistent behavior

0
votes

I'm using the following formula to find a value in the 'CDS et al' spreadsheet:

=COUNTIF(A3,'CDS et al'!A:A)

It returns 0, which is incorrect because I know the value shows up in the A column once. However, when I find the cell it's in manually and enter that into the countif formula, it finds it:

=COUNTIF(A3,'CDS et al'!A2)

The value is 1. What gives? A2 is a subset of A:A! A:A should return 1 as well.

2
excelexcel-2007excel-formula

2 Answers

1
votes

Your arguments are incorrect, COUNTIF has two arguments, range and criteria. Your function has them the wrong way around.

-1
votes
=COUNTIF(A:A, "CDS et al!")

For criteria parameter, you need to specify the text which will be used for comparison.