MS Excel: Count frequency of similar values in between blank cells - excel

Question

I'd like the count the frequency of identical values in a row. The value must occupy at least two cells and must be beside each other.
I'd like to post the image here but i do not have enough reputations. Anyway, screenshot can be found here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/1em9ltssc1ruw0u/stackOverflow_excelIssue_Countfrequencyofsimilarvaluesinbetweenblankcells.jpg?dl=0
J7:BE7 is where a person will type in the values - it correspond to time, in 30mins increment.
On a different part of the same sheet, in this case DD7:EY7 is where i have the formulas running.
This formula is on (first column) DD7 -- COUNTIF(J7:$BE7,J7)
This formula is on (last column) EY7 -- COUNTIF(BE7:$BE7,BE7)
The formula on DD7 counts the number of times the value on J7 appears across row 7 from column J to BE.
scenario 1: This formula works great if "orange" will only appear once. on my example from K7:L7.
scenario 2: The problem is when "orange" appears again on a non consecutive cell. what i mean is, "orange" appears on K7:L7, then it appears again on P7:Q7.
on scenario 1, the result of the formula in checking K7:L7 is 2, which is the desired value.
on scenario 2, the result of the formula in checking K7:L7 is 4, because it will also count "orange" that appears on K7:L7.
I was hoping the counting will stop if M7 has a different value. K7:L7 contains "orange" and M7:N7 has "apple". or the counting will stop if there's an empty cell in between, like U7:V7 contains "guava", and T7 is empty, then X7:Y7 again has "guava".
the fruits may occupy two to forty-eight columns of each row.
I know this is wordy, but i can't find other ways to explain it, english is not my first tongue.
Thank you in advanced.
~mark

Answer 1

I agree that the question could have been worded a little better, but I think I understand what you're looking for. I can't think of a good way to do it with built-in Excel functions, but if you're willing to make a little use of VBA, you can make a custom function that you can use just like it was a normal function in Excel. You'd just need to add something like this into a new module:
Public Function NumInARow(r As Range) As Variant
Dim i As Integer
If r.Value = "" Or r.Value = Empty Then
NumInARow = ""
Exit Function
End If
If r.Column > 1 Then
If r.Offset(0, -1).Value = r.Value Then
NumInARow = ""
Exit Function
End If
End If
i = 1
Do While r.Offset(0, i).Value = r.Value
i = i + 1
Loop
NumInARow = i
End Function
This function looks at the cell you pass as a parameter, and looks at the cells to the right until it finds a different one and counts the number of identical cells it comes across. For example, if cells A1-C1 all say "Bob" and D1 is blank or has a different value, then if you put =NumInARow(A1) in cell A2, then A2 would show a value of 3. You could drag that formula along the whole cell. The formula leaves the cell blank if the cell it's looking at is not the first in a sequence or if the cell it's looking at is blank. For example, if you put =NumInARow(B1) into cell B2 from the above scenario, B2 would appear blank because the second "Bob" was not the first in the sequence. I hope someone else can think of a way to do this with built-in Excel functions, but this may be an option for you. Here's a WikiHow article to show you how to make/where to put user-defined functions. It's pretty simple if you already have the code.
http://www.wikihow.com/Create-a-User-Defined-Function-in-Microsoft-Excel

Answer 2

The answer which I accepted - using formula - is from G-Man of superuser.com
The thread can be found on this link:
MS Excel: Count frequency of similar values in between blank cells
https://superuser.com/questions/806427/ms-excel-count-frequency-of-similar-values-in-between-blank-cells
This is verbatim of his words:
If I understand your request correctly, the following formulas will work. My solution requires a dummy column and a helper row, but they can be hidden. Further, you can probably eliminate the dummy column with a little bit of work, and you can put the helper row anywhere.
I’ll assume that your client names are in row 2. I’ll use column A as the dummy column, so the appointment data start in column B. Row 3 will be the helper row. In cell B3, enter the formula:
=IF(B2="", "", IF(B2<>C2, 1, C3+1))
Meaning:
If B2="", the client name for this timeslot is blank, so this is an idle timeslot, so display blank.
Otherwise, if B2<>C2, this timeslot and the next have different clients (C2 may or may not be blank), so this is the last timeslot for this appointment. Represent it as 1. Otherwise, count backwards, so the second-to-last timeslot for this appointment is 2, the third-to-last timeslot is 3, etc.
In cell B4, enter:
=IF(A2<>B2, B3, "")
If A2<>B2, this timeslot and the previous one have different clients (A2 may or may not be blank), so this is the first timeslot for this appointment. Display B3, which shows how many timeslots (half hours) there are in this appointment. Otherwise, display blank.
you can find more of his answers on the link I have provided.
Thank you for everyone's help.
Best Regards,
~mark