calculating entries

I need assistance with:
A1 B1 C1
bob BOB ?
tim TIM ?
sam SAM ?
tim
bob
tim
bob

My question is, I want to calculate in column C how many times Bob, Time and
Sam are used in Column A.

Thanks, Excel hopeless.

One way ..

Put in C1: =COUNTIF(A:A,B1)
Copy down
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Rgds
Max
xl 97
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xdemechanik
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"John" <John@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:5E8CE4F8-5AD2-401A-A668-0539E18CB1DF@microsoft.com...
> I need assistance with:
> A1 B1 C1
> bob BOB ?
> tim TIM ?
> sam SAM ?
> tim
> bob
> tim
> bob
>
> My question is, I want to calculate in column C how many times Bob, Time
and
> Sam are used in Column A.
>
> Thanks, Excel hopeless.
>