COUNTIFS

Counts cells that meet multiple criteria.

The COUNTIFS function is the primary tool for performing multi-criteria frequency analysis across datasets. Unlike the standard COUNTIF, this function evaluates multiple ranges and criteria simultaneously, returning a count only where all conditions evaluate to TRUE (AND logic). A critical technical requirement is that every $criteri{a}_r$ange must be of identical shape and size; mismatched dimensions will trigger a #VALUE! error. The function supports wildcards—an asterisk (*) for strings of any length and a question mark (?) for single characters—making it effective for partial text matching. For optimal spreadsheet design, criteria involving logical operators should be concatenated with cell references (e.g., ">"&F1) to allow for dynamic updates without editing formulas. It is worth noting that while COUNTIFS is highly efficient, it cannot natively handle array-based logic like OR conditions across the same range without being wrapped in a SUM function, and it treats values in ranges as specific data types (text vs. numbers) which must match the criteria format.