by In this tutorial, you will learn how to count unique values in Excel with formulas, and how to get an automatic count of distinct values in a pivot table. We will also discuss a number of formula examples for counting unique names, texts, numbers, cased-sensitive unique values, and more.
When working with a large dataset in Excel, you may often need to know how many duplicate and unique values are there. And sometimes, you may want to count only the distinct (different) values.
If you have been visiting this blog on a regular basic, you already know the Excel formula to count duplicates. And today, we are going to explore different ways to count unique values in Excel. But for the sake of clarity, let's define the terms first.
- Unique values - these are the values that appear in the list only once.
- Distinct values - these are all different values in the list, i.e. unique values plus 1st occurrences of duplicate values.
The following screenshot demonstrates the difference:
And now, let's see how you can count unique and distinct values in Excel using formulas and PivotTable features.
How to count unique values in Excel
Here's a common task that all Excel users have to perform once in a while. You have a list of data and you need to find out the number of unique values in that list. How do you do that? Easier than you may think :) Below you will find a few formulas to count unique values of different types.
Count unique values in a column
Supposing you have a column of names in your Excel worksheet, and you need to count unique names in that column. The solution is to use the SUM function in combination with IF and COUNTIF:
Note. This is an array formula, so be sure to press Ctrl + Shift + Enter to complete it. Once you do this, Excel will automatically enclose the formula in {curly braces} like in the screenshot below. In no case should you type the curly braces manually, that won't work.
In this example, we are counting unique names in range A2:A10, so our formula takes the following shape:
=SUM(IF(COUNTIF(A2:A10,A2:A10)=1,1,0))
Further on in this tutorial, we are going to discuss a handful of other formulas to count unique values of different types. And because all those formulas are variations of the basic Excel unique values formula, it makes sense to break down the above formula, so you can fully understand how it works and tweak it for your data. If someone is not interested in technicalities, you can skip right to the next formula example.
How the Excel count unique values formula works
As you see, 3 different functions are used in our unique values formula - SUM, IF and COUNTIF. Looking from the inside out, here's what each function does:
- The COUNTIF function counts how many times each individual value appears in the specified range.
In this example,
COUNTIF(A2:A10,A2:A10)returns the array{1;2;2;1;2;2;2;1;2}. - The IF function evaluates each value in the array returned by COUNTIF, keeps all 1's (unique values), and replaces all other values with zeros.
So, the function
IF(COUNTIF(A2:A10,A2:A10)=1,1,0)becomesIF(1;2;2;1;2;2;2;1;2) = 1,1,0,which turns into the array{1;0;0;1;0;0;0;1;0}where 1 is a unique value and 0 is a duplicate value. - Finally, the SUM function adds up the values in the array returned by IF and outputs the total number of unique values, which is exactly what we wanted.
Tip. To see what a specific part of your Excel unique values formula evaluates to, select that part in the formula bar and press the F9 key.
Count unique text values in Excel
If your Excel list contains both numerical and text values, and you want to count only unique text values, add the ISTEXT function to the array formula discussed above:
=SUM(IF(ISTEXT(A2:A10)*COUNTIF(A2:A10,A2:A10)=1,1,0))
As you know, the Excel ISTEXT function returns TRUE if an evaluated value is text, FALSE otherwise. Since the asterisk (*) works as the AND operator in array formulas, the IF function returns 1 only if a value is both text and unique, 0 otherwise. And after the SUM function adds up all 1's, you will get a count of unique text values in the specified range.
Don't forget to press Ctrl + Shift + Enter to correctly enter the array formula, and you will get a result similar to this:
As you can see in the screenshot above, the formula returns the total number of unique text values, excluding blank cells, numbers, logical values of TRUE and FALSE, and errors.
Count unique numeric values in Excel
To count unique numbers in a list of data, utilize an array formula like we've just used for counting unique text values, with the only difference that you embed ISNUMBER instead of ISTEXT in your unique values formula:
=SUM(IF(ISNUMBER(A2:A10)*COUNTIF(A2:A10,A2:A10)=1,1,0))
Note. Since Microsoft Excel stores dates and times as serial numbers, they are also counted.
Count case-sensitive unique values in Excel
If your table contains case-sensitive data, the easiest way to count unique values would be creating a helper column with the following array formula to identify duplicate and unique items:
=IF(SUM((--EXACT($A$2:$A$10,A2)))=1,"Unique","Dupe")
And then, use a simple COUNTIF function to count unique values:
=COUNTIF(B2:B10, "unique")
Count distinct values in Excel (unique and 1st duplicate occurrences)
To get a count of distinct values in a list, use the following formula:
Remember, it's an array formula, and therefore you should press the Ctrl + Shift + Enter shortcut instead of the usual Enter keystroke.
Alternatively, you can use the SUMPRODUCT function and complete the formula in the usual way by pressing the Enter key:
For example, to count the distinct values in range A2:A10, you can go with either:
=SUM(1/COUNTIF(A2:A10,A2:A10))
Or
=SUMPRODUCT(1/COUNTIF(A2:A10,A2:A10))
How the Excel distinct formula works
As you already know, we use the COUNTIF function to find out how many times each individual value appears in the specified range. In the above example, the result of the COUNTIF function is the following array: {2;2;3;1;2;2;3;1;3}.
After that, a number of division operations are performed, where each value of the array is used as a divisor with 1 as the dividend. This turns all duplicates values into fractional numbers corresponding to the number of duplicate occurrences. For example, if a value appears 2 times in the list, it generates 2 items in the array with a value of 0.5 (1/2=0.5). And if a value appears 3 times, it produces 3 items in the array with a value of 0.3(3). In our example, the result of 1/COUNTIF(A2:A10,A2:A10)) is the array {0.5;0.5;0.3(3);1;0.5;0.5;0.3(3);1;0.3(3)}.
Doesn't make much sense so far? That's because we haven't applied the SUM / SUMPRODUCT function yet. When one of these functions adds up the values in the array, the sum of all fractional numbers for each individual item always yields 1, no matter how many occurrences of that item exist in the list. And because all unique values appear in the array as 1's (1/1=1), the final result returned by the formula is the total number of all different values in the list.
Formulas to count distinct values of different types
As is the case with counting unique values in Excel, you can use variations of the basic Excel count distinct formula to handle specific value types such as numbers, text, and case-sensitive values.
Please remember that all of the below formulas are array formulas and require pressing Ctrl + Shift + Enter.
Count distinct values ignoring empty cells
If a column where you want to count distinct values might contain blank cells, you should add an IF function that will check the specified range for blanks (the basic Excel distinct formula discussed above would return the #DIV/0 error in this case):
For example, to count distinct values in range A2:A10, use the following array formula:
=SUM(IF(A2:A10<>"",1/COUNTIF(A2:A10, A2:A10), 0))
Formula to count distinct text values
To count distinct text values in a column, we'll be using the same approach that we've just used to exclude empty cells.
As you can easily guess, we will simply embed the ISTEXT function into our Excel count distinct formula:
And here's a real-life formula example:
=SUM(IF(ISTEXT(A2:A10),1/COUNTIF(A2:A10, A2:A10),""))
Formula to count distinct numbers
To count distinct numeric values (numbers, dates and times), use the ISNUMBER function:
For example, to count all different numbers in range A2:A10, use the following formula:
=SUM(IF(ISNUMBER(A2:A10),1/COUNTIF(A2:A10, A2:A10),""))
Count case-sensitive distinct values in Excel
Similarly to counting case-sensitive unique values, the easiest way to count case-sensitive distinct values is to add a helper column with the array formula that identifies unique values including first duplicate occurrences. The formula is basically the same as the one we used to count case-sensitive unique values, with one small change in a cell reference that makes a great difference:
=IF(SUM((--EXACT($A$2:$A2,$A2)))=1,"Distinct","")
As you remember, all array formulas in Excel require pressing Ctrl + Shift + Enter.
After the above formula is finished, you can count "distinct" values with a usual COUNTIF formula like this:
=COUNTIF(B2:B10, "distinct")
If there is no way you can add a helper column to your worksheet, you can use the following complex array formula to count case-sensitive distinct values without creating an additional column:
=SUM(IFERROR(1/IF($A$2:$A$10<>"", FREQUENCY(IF(EXACT($A$2:$A$10, TRANSPOSE($A$2:$A$10)), MATCH(ROW($A$2:$A$10), ROW($A$2:$A$10)), ""), MATCH(ROW($A$2:$A$10), ROW($A$2:$A$10))), 0), 0))
Count unique and distinct rows in Excel
Counting unique / distinct rows in Excel is akin to counting unique and distinct values, with the only difference that you use the COUNTIFS function instead of COUNTIF, which lets you specify several columns to check for unique values.
For example, to count unique or distinct names based on the values in columns A (First Name) and B (Last Name), use one of the following formulas:
Formula to count unique rows:
=SUM(IF(COUNTIFS(A2:A10,A2:A10, B2:B10,B2:B10)=1,1,0))
Formula to count distinct rows:
=SUM(1/COUNTIFS(A2:A10,A2:A10,B2:B10,B2:B10))
Naturally, you are not limited to counting unique rows based only on two columns, the Excel COUNTIFS function can process up to 127 range/criteria pairs.
Count distinct values in Excel using a PivotTable
The latest versions of Excel 2013 and Excel 2016 have a special feature that allows counting distinct values automatically in a pivot table. The following screenshot gives an idea of how the Excel Distinct Count looks like:
To create a pivot table with the distinct count for a certain column, perform the following steps.
- Select the data to be included in a pivot table, switch to the Insert tab, Tables group, and click the PivotTable button.
- In the Create PivotTable dialog, choose whether to place your pivot table in a new or existing worksheet, and be sure to select the Add this data to the Data Model checkbox.
- When your pivot table opens, arrange the Rows, Columns and Values areas the way you want. If you don't have much experience with Excel pivot tables, the following detailed guidelines may prove helpful: Creating a PivotTable in Excel.
- Move the field whose distinct count you want to calculate (Item field in this example) to the Values area, click on it, and select Field Value Settings… from the drop-down menu:
- The Value Field Settings dialog window will open, you scroll down to Distinct Count, which is the very last option in the list, select it and click OK.
You can also give a custom name to your Distinct Count if you want to.
Done! The newly created pivot table will display the distinct count like shown in the very first screenshot in this section.
Tip. After updating your source data, remember to update the PivotTable to bring the distinct count up to date. To refresh a pivot table, just click the Refresh button on the Analyze tab, in the Data group.
This is how you count distinct and unique values in Excel. If someone wants to have a closer look at the formulas discussed in this tutorial, you are welcome to download the sample Excel Count Unique workbook.
I thank you for reading and hope to see you again next week. In the next article, we are going to discuss various ways to find, filter, extract and highlights unique values in Excel. Please stay tuned!
236 comments
Awesome, thanks for your help..
I created a pivot chart using distinct values and now want to group the dates portion of the data to get distinct counts by month, however, the group function is grayed out. How can I group this information if the group function is not available without manual working / adding columns? Thank you.
For "distinct" data, ie, I needed to know how many individual customers I had in a list of transaction I did this:
Sorted data by customer name, then added
a column of the formula: =IF(EXACT(A2,A3)=TRUE,0,1) in each row,
then summed the column.
Easy, accurate, no special arrays etc. had to hide the column when sharing.
Hello,
please help me find a solution:
I need to count the number of distinct text and number values in column $M:$M , when in column $E:$E is written "*italija*", and when in column $F:$F is written "saus", also - it should not count blank cells.
Now I am doing this in pivot: filtering column F with "saus", than filtering column E with "italija", than copying column M in another sheet, removing dublicates and counting the cells.
Hello, Karolis,
Would it be possible for you to send us a small sample workbook with your source data and the result you want to get? Please shorten your table to 10-20 rows / columns and email it to support@ablebits.com. Please also don't forget to include the link to your comment in the email.
We'll look into your task and try to find a solution.
Hello,
I'm using Excel 2016, and used Distinct Count within a pivot table.
My result looks like this:
Row Label Distinct Count
Item 1 1
Item 2 39
Item 3 3
Grand Total 40
See, the grand total does not match the sum of each item. I've checked each item's details and I figure the grand total should be 43 (1+39+3) instead of 40 that the pivot calculates.
Any ideas on why this might be different?
Thank you.
Hi Svetlana Cheusheva,
I want to count no of billing documents with Order number wise and number of billing dates for order number.
Order number Billing Date No of billing Dates Billing Document No of invoices
2407571 18-Jan-18 1 8014769109 1
2407573 8-Jan-18 1 8014769017 1
2407574 8-Jan-18 1 8014769017 1
2407575 5-Jan-18 3 8014769004 3
10-Jan-18 8014769041
16-Jan-18 8014769086
2407576 16-Jan-18 1 8014769086 1
2407577 9-Jan-18 8014769018
2407578 5-Jan-18 8014769002
9-Jan-18 8014769025
16-Jan-18 8014769083
Hi Pandu,
I am sorry, your data look distorted in the comment above. If you can send us a small sample workbook with your data and the result you want to get, we'll be able to help you better.
Please shorten your table to 10-20 rows / columns and email it to support@ablebits.com. Please also don't forget to include the link to your comment in the email.
Thank you.
Hello,
Similar to Fiona's question posted 09 April 2016, I have a list of patients in column b with duplicates, their procedure in column c, and the date of the procedure in column d. I need to report how many patients received each kind of procedure quarterly. Is it possible to have a formula that will report this information in the same worksheet? I have been able to figure out how to count how many "unique" patients for the whole year, but not in a date range based on each procedure.
Thanks in advance for any help.
Hi,
I'm working with Excel 2010. I'm working on a document that keeps track of all our projects. I need to know how many organizations we worked with in a month period. We keep track of every interaction so the same organization appears multiple times in the list. How can I have the number of distinct organizations by a date range?
I use this formula to get all the organizations in the column, but I can't figure out how to condition it by date range
=SUMPRODUCT((' Activities'!K2:K100"")/COUNTIF(' Activities'!K2:K100,' Activities'!K2:K100&""))
Any help is very much appreciated.
Thank you
Dear, I am working on the attached Sheet. I need to calculate the Values in Column "G" i.e. to Count unique text values based on multiple (Two) criteria, but criteria are in NUMBERS not in TEXT. Further, Its is big sheet, therefore I want to use the cell reference in range and in criteria. I am very confused. I want to count the column C i.e. Degree based on the Criteria E and F. That is, Look E2 in column A and Look F2 in column B and count the unique text values in Column C. Hope it is clear.
Plz help. Thank you
Hello,
For me to understand the problem better, please send me a small sample workbook with your source data and the result you expect to get to support@ablebits.com. Please don't worry if you have confidential information there, we never disclose the data we get from our customers and delete it as soon as the problem is resolved.
Please also don't forget to include the link to this comment into your email.
I'll look into your task and try to help.
how to count each sales person bill number and unique
Hi Guys,
How would you ensure that duplicates are not included for the first criteria i.e ('GRP310 for P&L Variance'!$C$5:$C$1000='P&L Variance MTD'!B$5) ???
=+SUMPRODUCT('GRP310 for P&L Variance'!$E$5:$BZ$1000,('GRP310 for P&L Variance'!$C$5:$C$1000='P&L Variance MTD'!B$5)*('GRP310 for P&L Variance'!$D$5:$D$1000='P&L Variance MTD'!$A7)*('GRP310 for P&L Variance'!$E$3:$BZ$3='P&L Variance MTD'!B$6)*('GRP310 for P&L Variance'!$E$4:$BZ$4='P&L Variance MTD'!$A$5))
Thanks in advance.
Hello Victor,
For me to understand the problem better, please send me a small sample workbook with your source data and the result you expect to get to support@ablebits.com. Please don't worry if you have confidential information there, we never disclose the data we get from our customers and delete it as soon as the problem is resolved.
Please also don't forget to include the link to this comment into your email.
I'll look into your task and try to help.
Hi,
I have sought to use the following formula:
=SUM(IF(COUNTIF(A2:A10,A2:A10)=1,1,0))
No matter how implemented it returns 0. I have even created some simple new text data in a new column (Jim, Bob, Jim, Sally, Joe, Bob, Sally, Joe, Jim) in a new test spreadsheet, and the same happens.
I can only conjecture that the reason for this is that COUNTIF(RNG1,RNG1) returns an array, not a single number, and so produces 0?
The concept seems so simple, but I have spent that last few hours trying to resolve this maddening issue.
Help! Please!
B
Hello,
This is an array formula, so be sure to press Ctrl + Shift + Enter to complete it properly. Once you do this, Excel will automatically enclose the formula in {curly braces}. Typing the curly braces manually won't work.
Hope it will help you!
Hello! I need help
I have a list and I want to count the product in this way.
product A = 1
product A = 1
product A = 1
product B = 2
product B = 2
product C = 3
product D = 4
product D = 4
product D = 4
product D = 4
Please help me.
Hello, Rahul,
For me to understand the problem better, please send me a small sample workbook with your source data and the result you expect to get to support@ablebits.com. Please don't worry if you have confidential information there, we never disclose the data we get from our customers and delete it as soon as the problem is resolved.
Please also don't forget to include the link to this comment into your email.
I'll look into your task and try to help.
Hi
Excellent page and tutorial!
I have a pivot table created with patients coming in every month. I want to count the new patients that have come in each month, so basically compare the previous months data and put as null if the patient visited the previous months.
Thanks in advance
Peter, this is a Array Formula. To activate you must select CTRL+SHIFT+ENTER to activate. This will automatically add the { and } characters to the formula. They can not be added manually.
Hope this helps!
Many thanks to the folks at AbleBits for this tutorial and examples. I could not get my counts to work correctly.
On a side note, I've been burned by bad data in the past so I also recommend trimming your data to remove any trailing spaces and removing any punctuations like the ' in O'Brien. If your data contains mixed case I would also recommend reformatting everything to the same case format. O'Brien and Obrien both become OBRIEN. You'll be happy you did.
Great page!
However, when I copy/paste the formula and enter the correct ranges, I get an error message, not recognising this as a valid formula.
I have had this issue with other formulas too, so it might be a cell formatting issue?
Great many thanks in advance!
Hello there,
May I ask, is it possible to exclude blanks when using Distinct Count in a pivot table?
Thanks in advance for any guidance! :)
Chuck
you guys r awesome
Hello
I am a teacher trying to use google sheets to gather data. I'd like to break each assessment question into two parts: one for understanding the concept, and the other for computation. The only value that will go in each will be an x indicating that there was an error. I then want to accumulate separate totals based on these entries. Because this same rule doesn't apply to every question, not all questions will have a concept and computation part.
I am trying to use COUNTIF as follows:
COUNTIF(C7,"x")+(G7,"x")+(I7,"x") etc. I am getting a Formula parse error in the cell.
Any help you can give is appreciated!
Hello, Greg,
I'm sorry, but it's not exactly clear what result you want to get. Maybe this formula will do:
=COUNTIF(C7,"x")+COUNTIF(G7,"x")+COUNTIF(I7,"x")
If you still need our help, you can send us a small sample workbook with your data and the result you want to get to support@ablebits.com. Don't forget to mention this article and your comment.
I have pulled data from several states with account, I want to look at only one state & only count unique Business in that state, no duplicates