Count the number of specific words in a list - arrays

Question

I have some big computation to do since I have an Excel file with a column representing a list of unique IDs of people that worked on every incidents in our system. I would like to know the total number of interventions that have been done on all incidents. For example, let's say I have this:
ID|People working on that incident
¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯
0|AA0000 BB1111 CC2222 ZZ1234
1|BB1111
2|CC2222 ZZ1234 CC2222 ZZ1234
3|BB1111 CC2222 AA0000 BB1111
I have a list named List which has a zone with the list of people IDs I actually want to include. For example, let's say that the first zone of List = {"AA0000","CC2222"}.
Now, I would like to know how many interventions have been done by our employees (in List) on all the incidents I have (we have 4 in the array above). The result would be 6: 2 interventions for incident ID 0, 0 for ID 1, 2 for ID 2 and 2 for ID 3.
Assuming the data are in a different (closed) workbook, how can I calculate that using my list List and the range above A1:B4 (I would like to eventually use the whole columns, so let's say A:B)?
EDIT:
I already got something working that count the number of times a specific word is in a whole column.
SUM(
LEN('[myFile.xlsx]Sheet1'!$A:$A)
-LEN(
SUBSTITUTE('[myFile.xlsx]Sheet1'!$A:$A;$Z$1;"")
)
)
/LEN($Z$1)
Z1 is the word I'm looking for (example: CC2222) and '[myFile.xlsx]Sheet1'!$A:$A is the column I'm searching in.
Isn't there a really simple way to make this working with an array instead of Z1? The length is always the same (six plus a space).
Source: http://office.microsoft.com/en-ca/excel-help/count-the-number-of-words-in-a-cell-or-range-HA001034625.aspx

Answer 1

Split your source data ColumnB with Text to Columns. Unpivot the result, delete the middle column and pivot what's left.

Answer 2

You could do this fairly easily with a User Defined Function. The function below takes two arguments. The first is the range constituting you second column labelled above "People working on that incident". The second is your List which is a range consisting of a single entry for each ID you wish to count. As shown in your example, if multiple identical ID's are shown in a single entry (e.g. your ID 2 has CC2222 repeated twice), they will each be counted.
To enter this User Defined Function (UDF), opens the Visual Basic Editor.
Ensure your project is highlighted in the Project Explorer window.
Then, from the top menu, select Insert/Module and
paste the code below into the window that opens.
To use this User Defined Function (UDF), enter a formula like
=InterventionCount(B2:B5,H1:H2)
in some cell.
Option Explicit
Function InterventionCount(myRange As Range, myList As Range) As Long
Dim RE As Object, MC As Object
Dim vRange As Variant, vList As Variant
Dim sPat As String
Dim I As Long
vRange = myRange
vList = myList
If IsArray(vList) Then
For I = 1 To UBound(vList)
If Not vList(I, 1) = "" Then _
sPat = sPat & "|" & vList(I, 1)
Next I
Else
sPat = "|" & vList
End If
sPat = "\b(?:" & Mid(sPat, 2) & ")\b"
Set RE = CreateObject("vbscript.regexp")
With RE
.Global = True
.ignorecase = True
.Pattern = sPat
End With
For I = 1 To UBound(vRange)
Set MC = RE.Execute(vRange(I, 1))
InterventionCount = InterventionCount + MC.Count
Next I
End Function
For a non-VBA solution you could use a helper column. Again, List is a single column which contains the list of people you want to add up, one entry per cell.
If your data is in Column B, then add a column and enter this formula in B2:
This formula must be array-entered; and the $A:$J terms represent a counter allowing for up to ten items in the entries in column B. If there might be more than that, expand as needed: e.g. for up to 26 items, you would change them to $A:$Z
=SUM(N(TRIM(MID(SUBSTITUTE(B2," ",REPT(" ",99)),(COLUMN($A:$J)=1)+(COLUMN($A:$J)>1)*(COLUMN($A:$J)-1)*99,99))=(List)))
Fill down as far as necessary, then SUM the column to get your total.
To array-enter a formula, after entering
the formula into the cell or formula bar, hold down
ctrl-shift while hitting enter. If you did this
correctly, Excel will place braces {...} around the formula.

Answer 3

I finally went for a completely different solution based on my working formula for 1 employee:
SUM(
LEN('[myFile.xlsx]Sheet1'!$A:$A)
-LEN(
SUBSTITUTE('[myFile.xlsx]Sheet1'!$A:$A;$Z$1;"")
)
)
/LEN($Z$1)
Instead of trying something more complicated, I just added a new column to my employee list where the total is evaluated for each employees (it was already needed elsewhere anyway). Then, I just have to sum up all the employees to get my total.
It is not as elegant as I would like and I feel like it is a workaround, but since it is the easiest solution on a programmation standpoint and that I need the individual datas anyway, it's what I really need for now.
+1 to all the other answers for your help though.