How to find most and second most common entry from alpha list

Can someone help me with trying to determine what the most common entry would be from a list. For example,

human
human
elf
elf
elf
halfling

The most common is elf, the second most common is human.

Also, say I wanted to add a level to each entry and depending on the level of the entry would resolve the most common.

human 7
human 3
elf 2
elf 2
elf 2
halfling 7

In this example, human would be most (as 7+3) and halfling would be second most (7).

Cheers,

wow I certainly appreciate this entry, thank you.

Working with the first part of your attachment, if I change certain values say from human to halfling, where it would be most common halflings, it returns human.

Also I don't understand the reference to $d$2:d2 as this is blank in your spreadsheet.

Cheers,

wow I certainly appreciate this entry, thank you.

How would I make the second entry most common not be like the first common as say if I had:

elf
elf
elf
halfling
halfling
halfling

then the first most common would be elf and the second most common would be elf (I suppose based upon the initial order of entry) but how could we make the second most common halfling and not the first most common (ever).

Cheers,

sorry for the message lag heh heh

Actually I'm just realizing that maybe this is a bit more complicated than I originally thought.

As we have primary and secondary races, the primary race *can be composed of the same as secondary race if all values are equal otherwise the primary race is different than the secondary race if the values are different.

So
elf
elf
elf
elf
would be primary elf, secondary elf

but
elf
elf
human
human
would be primary elf, secondary human

Cheers,

btw thanks for taking the time to help me, I just love the internet that it can connect us like this,

Cheers,

ok almost there, if primary and secondary are the same then secondary becomes n/a so I just need to put a if n/a then same as primary?

Nicely done, I am just loving this, so much fun,

Cheers,

I'm still not clear with what is happening at $d$2:d2 and $d$3:d3

=IFERROR(INDEX($C$4:$C$28,MATCH(1,INDEX((COUNTIF($C$4:$C$28,$C$4:$C$28)=LARGE(INDEX(COUNTIF($C$4:$C$28,$C$4:$C$28),),1+SUMPRODUCT(COUNTIF($C$4:$C$28,$C$29:C30))))*(COUNTIF($C$29:C30,$C$4:$C$28)=0),),0)),C30)

this returns a 0 if all values are the same, maybe i need to replace a 0 with c30, ah, now I'm becoming lazybrain, heh heh

Cheers,

Yeah, no matter what value I place in the last , be it c30, c29, 1, whatever, it always comes up 0.

You just replied in the last 30 seconds didn't you,

k let me try this, thanks,

k now it is function right when both primary and secondary are the same, but, heh heh, but yeah that's it. If I change the values of primary and secondary they are still the same.

btw thanks again for all your help, I am learning this stuff and I've already learned so much from this community.

Cheers,

k I didn't read all of your post, I just jumped to the copy and paste. Feels like I'm an astronaut floating above the earth right about now. I need to place the last argument in cell 30. (Meanwhile my son is after me to play Borderlands wit me ...)

Well, that's it I'm out of time, must play Borderlands.

Cheers,

=IFERROR(INDEX($C$4:$C$28,MATCH(1,INDEX((COUNTIF($C$4:$C$28,$C$4:$C$28)=LARGE(INDEX(COUNTIF($C$4:$C$28,$C$4:$C$28),),1+SUMPRODUCT(COUNTIF($C$4:$C$28,$C$29:C29))))*(COUNTIF($C$29:C29,$C$4:$C$28)=0)*($C$4:$C$28<>""),),0)),C29)

got it to work if I change c29 to c30, dunno why but man, this string is disturbingly long for my sight taking breaks is key.

Cheers,

Yep, thanks for the angle,

Cheers,