Most occuring name in a list?

[theprof]

Hi all,

kinda new to the Excel thing and I'm trying to find a formaula to get the most frequently occuring name in a list that I have.

eg:
Jamie
Sam
Steve
David
Sean M
Dean
Jason
Jamie

Jamie occurs twice in the list, so what do I use to get that result?

[daddylonglegs]

You could try this formula

=INDEX(A1:A8,MODE(IF(A1:A8<>"", MATCH(A1:A8,A1:A8,0))))

confirmed with CTRL+SHIFT+ENTER

where your names are in A1:A8

Note: if no name occurs more than once you get #N/A. If 2 or more names tie for the most occurences then you get the first to appear in the list.....

[theprof]

thanks for that.

still not too sure how it all works.....like I said I'm a bit of a newbie with excel.

I've changed the formula to match the columns and rows on my page but I'm missing something, any advice?

=INDEX(I31:I55,MODE(IF(I31:I55<>"",MATCH(I31:I55,I31:I55,0))))

what is supposed to go where?

[daddylonglegs]

Your formula look OK but it's an "array formula" which needs to be confirmed with CTRL+SHIFT+ENTER.

To do that, select cell with formula, press F2 key then hold down CTRL and SHIFT keys and press ENTER. Curly braces like { and } appear around the formula in the formula bar and formula should give the correct result.

Note: If you edit the formula then CTRL+SHIFT+ENTER has to be used again.....

[theprof]

thank so so much, it worked a treat!