Count the occurance of a number or text in a range that meets other criteria

Hello,
This is my first time here asking for help.
I'm hoping I someone can help me with an equation.
example - count occurence of text in string in a range.xlsx

I have a sample data set B2:C30
the data in B2:B30 contains text with various words/spellings
cells C2:C30 will contain a notation if the row/record is to be excluded from the count.

I found an equation on the internet that will search and count the cells if it finds my search value in a cell.
'=COUNTIF($B$2:$B$30,"*"&F2&"*")
It works for that, but I need something more.

What I need is a formula that does something similar but can exclude counting a cell if the cell in column C is not blank.

The current equation searches for the value "4" in the text string in column B and returns 10.
for my purpose, I need an equation that will return a value of 9 since cell C5 is not blank, etc.

Currently all I'm sure of is that I can't use the COUNTIF function.

I hope I was able to correctly add my .xlsx file example.

Help?
Kenneth

Hahahahah! Oh cool!
thank you, thank you

That works perfectly!

Kenneth

@ kaneohe247

Based on your last post it seems that you are satisfied with the solution(s) you've received but you haven't marked your thread as SOLVED. I'll do that for you now but please keep in mind for your future threads that Rule #9 requires you to do that yourself. If your problem has not been solved you can use Thread Tools (located above your first post) and choose "Mark this thread as unsolved".
Thanks.

Also, as an infrequent user of the forum, you may not be aware that you can thank those who have helped you by clicking the small star icon located in the lower left corner of the post in which the help was given. By doing so you can add to the reputation(s) of those who helped.

Thanks everyone.
I've thanked vlady by using that star, and thank you Cutter for marking this thread as SOLVED.
This was the first time I've ever posted here.

Kenneth


Edit by Cutter: You're welcome.