COUNTIFS function: Description, Usage, Syntax, Examples and Explanation

Syntax of COUNTIFS function

COUNTIFS(criteria_range1, criteria1, [criteria_range2, criteria2]…)

The COUNTIFS function syntax has the following arguments:

• criteria_range1    Required. The first range in which to evaluate the associated criteria.
• criteria1    Required. The criteria in the form of a number, expression, cell reference, or text that define which cells will be counted. For example, criteria can be expressed as 32, “>32”, B4, “apples”, or “32”.
• criteria_range2, criteria2, …    Optional. Additional ranges and their associated criteria. Up to 127 range/criteria pairs are allowed.

COUNTIFS formula explanation

• Each range’s criteria is applied one cell at a time. If all of the first cells meet their associated criteria, the count increases by 1. If all of the second cells meet their associated criteria, the count increases by 1 again, and so on until all of the cells are evaluated.
• If the criteria argument is a reference to an empty cell, the COUNTIFS function treats the empty cell as a 0 value.
• You can use the wildcard characters— the question mark (?) and asterisk (*) — in criteria. A question mark matches any single character, and an asterisk matches any sequence of characters. If you want to find an actual question mark or asterisk, type a tilde (~) before the character.