Is this possible in Excel 2007??

carlos23 · 09-16-2008, 07:56 PM

I am creating a chart with the most common male and female names from the 1980s (2,000 names) for a team project. I have to order either each alphabetic letter individually or I can purchase a set including the letters A-Z and 0-9. We are trying to determine which is the most cost effective way to order these letters (either inidividually or in the A-Z set). Is there a way that you can create a formula or a function that will count each letter in selected cells and compute this number (ie: Amanda, Allison, Ashley--select those three names and ask it to compute the number of As and receive the answer "5"). The only way we have thought of is to select Find and type in A and count all the individual As the computer finds. As I was saying we have 2,000 names, so this process of individually counting would be very time consuming and not cost effective. I was hoping someone would know a better way of being able to compute the total individual letters used in all 2,000 names if there is such a method.

Thanks,
Carlos Iturbe

09-16-2008, 07:56 PM	#1 (permalink)
carlos23 Registered User Join Date: Sep 2008 Posts: 4 OS: Windows Vista Home Premium	Is this possible in Excel 2007?? I am creating a chart with the most common male and female names from the 1980s (2,000 names) for a team project. I have to order either each alphabetic letter individually or I can purchase a set including the letters A-Z and 0-9. We are trying to determine which is the most cost effective way to order these letters (either inidividually or in the A-Z set). Is there a way that you can create a formula or a function that will count each letter in selected cells and compute this number (ie: Amanda, Allison, Ashley--select those three names and ask it to compute the number of As and receive the answer "5"). The only way we have thought of is to select Find and type in A and count all the individual As the computer finds. As I was saying we have 2,000 names, so this process of individually counting would be very time consuming and not cost effective. I was hoping someone would know a better way of being able to compute the total individual letters used in all 2,000 names if there is such a method. Thanks, Carlos Iturbe