Using COUNTIF to count multiple instances of data in a single cell

Hi there, I'm trying to use the countif formula to count all instances of a specific letter within a column.

The formula I'm currently using is =COUNTIF(Orders!E2:E2033,"*A*") (the

The problem that I'm running into is that I don't just want a count of how many cells "A" appears in, but the number of times "A" appears in any cell in column E.

So the instances where someone has ordered more than one of Package A (eg C6) only one A gets counted. Is there a way to alter the formula to return a count of 4 for the example below instead of 3?

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Thanks for your help,
Emily

Try it like this:

=SUMPRODUCT(--(LEN(C2:C6)-LEN(SUBSTITUTE(C2:C6,"A",""))))

Adjust the ranges to suit.

Hope this helps.

Pete

Thank you! Going off of both of your suggestions I got

=SUMPRODUCT(LEN(Orders!E$2:E$8)-LEN(SUBSTITUTE(Orders!E$2:E$8,"A","")))

to achieve what I was trying to accomplish.

If you see this, Pete, what is the purpose of the double dashes (--) in your formula preceding the first LEN?

Emily