It seems that when you use a criteria in the COUNTIFS statement that refers to a blank cell, it provides a '0' result. The only way I've been able to accomplish that is by replacing the criteria cell references that point to a 'blank' cell with ''.

COUNTIFS can be used with criteria based on dates, numbers, text, and other. So my question is, how can I put a formula into M5 that refers to the criteria shown in H5:K5 and provides the correct result, and that will enable me to copy that same formula into M6:M13 to provide the correct results there as well. The COUNTIFS function returns the count of cells that meet one or more criteria. However, when I replace the '''s in the formula in M5 with the cell references I5 and J5 the result in M5 becomes 0 which is not the correct answer (note that Row's 4 and 8 both meet the criteria of an A in the Operator column, blank in the Word and Decimal column, and C in the Response column). This function uses the following syntax: COUNTIFS (criteriarange1, criterion1, criteriarange2, criterion2, ) where: criteriarange1: The first range of cells to look in. The numbers shown in the Result column are the correct results, and I would like to accomplish that by putting a formula in Cell M5 and copying it down. The COUNTIFS () function in Excel can be used to count the number of rows in a spreadsheet that meet multiple criteria. To generate a count, all conditions must match. The COUNTIFS function takes multiple criteria in pairs each pair contains one range and the associated criteria for that range. What I'm, trying to accomplish is to summarize how many of the entries in this small database (B3:E17) meet the criteria in each of the Rows (H5:K13) and show the results in Column (M5:M13). How do I count multiple rows in Excel If you want to count rows where two (or more) criteria match, you can use a formula based on the COUNTIFS function. I know I have different types of formulas in the M column, and that is the problem. Perhaps I didn't make myself clear in my explanation.

Excel countif multiple criteria