Excel - Using COUNTIF/COUNTIFS across multiple sheets/same column - excel

Question

I am trying to "COUNT" the number of a certain object in column I (in this instance) across multiple sheets. That value in column I is the result of a formula (if it matters). So far I have:
=COUNTIF('Page M904'!I:I,A13)+COUNTIF('Page M905'!I:I,A13)+COUNTIF('Page M906'!I:I,A13)
which works, but I am going to have 20 something pages to scan through. I would like to avoid having a page long formula.
I have tried
=COUNTIFS('Page M904:Page M906'!I:I,A13) and
=COUNTIF('Page M904:Page M906'!I:I,A13)
but that results in a #VALUE.
And I think
=COUNTIFS('Page M904'!I:I,A14,'Page M905'!I:I,A14,'Page M906'!I:I,A14)
is a misapplication of the COUNTIFS because I get 0 when it should be 35.
I am trying to avoid using VBA for this application. But if has to be, then it has to be :) Thanks in advance for your time and help.

Answer 1

This could be solved without VBA by the following technique.
In this example I am counting all the threes (3) in the range A:A of the sheets Page M904, Page M905 and Page M906.
List all the sheet names in a single continuous range like in the following example. Here listed in the range D3:D5.
Then by having the lookup value in cell B2, the result can be found in cell B4 by using the following formula:
=SUMPRODUCT(COUNTIF(INDIRECT("'"&D3:D5&"'!A:A"), B2))

Answer 2

I am trying to avoid using VBA. But if has to be, then it has to be:)
There is quite simple UDF for you:
Function myCountIf(rng As Range, criteria) As Long
Dim ws As Worksheet
For Each ws In ThisWorkbook.Worksheets
myCountIf = myCountIf + WorksheetFunction.CountIf(ws.Range(rng.Address), criteria)
Next ws
End Function
and call it like this: =myCountIf(I:I,A13)
P.S. if you'd like to exclude some sheets, you can add If statement:
Function myCountIf(rng As Range, criteria) As Long
Dim ws As Worksheet
For Each ws In ThisWorkbook.Worksheets
If ws.name <> "Sheet1" And ws.name <> "Sheet2" Then
myCountIf = myCountIf + WorksheetFunction.CountIf(ws.Range(rng.Address), criteria)
End If
Next ws
End Function
UPD:
I have four "reference" sheets that I need to exclude from being scanned/searched. They are currently the last four in the workbook
Function myCountIf(rng As Range, criteria) As Long
Dim i As Integer
For i = 1 To ThisWorkbook.Worksheets.Count - 4
myCountIf = myCountIf + WorksheetFunction.CountIf(ThisWorkbook.Worksheets(i).Range(rng.Address), criteria)
Next i
End Function

Answer 3

My first post...
UDF I managed quickly to compile.
Usage:
Select 3D range as normal and enclose is into quotation marks like below...
=CountIf3D("'StartSheet:EndSheet'!G16:G878";"Criteria")
Advisably sheets to be adjacent to avoid unanticipated results.
Public Function CountIf3D(SheetstoCount As String, CriteriaToUse As Variant)
Dim sStarSheet As String, sEndSheet As String, sAddress As String
Dim lColonPos As Long, lExclaPos As Long, cnt As Long
lColonPos = InStr(SheetstoCount, ":") 'Finding ':' separating sheets
lExclaPos = InStr(SheetstoCount, "!") 'Finding '!' separating address from the sheets
sStarSheet = Mid(SheetstoCount, 2, lColonPos - 2) 'Getting first sheet's name
sEndSheet = Mid(SheetstoCount, lColonPos + 1, lExclaPos - lColonPos - 2) 'Getting last sheet's name
sAddress = Mid(SheetstoCount, lExclaPos + 1, Len(SheetstoCount) - lExclaPos) 'Getting address
cnt = 0
For i = Sheets(sStarSheet).Index To Sheets(sEndSheet).Index
cnt = cnt + Application.CountIf(Sheets(i).Range(sAddress), CriteriaToUse)
Next
CountIf3D = cnt
End Function

Answer 4

I was looking to do the same thing, and I have a work around that seems to be less complicated using the Frequency and Index functions. I use this part of the function from averaging over multiple sheets while excluding the all the 0's.
=(FREQUENCY(Start:End!B1,-0.000001)+INDEX(FREQUENCY(Start:End!B1,0),2))