Spreadsheet: Count Repeated Values In A Column

Question

I'm not particularly knowledgeable about spreadsheet wrangling, so I could use some assitance with a seemingly simple problem.

I have a column of year values which I am sorting by. I'd like to find the quantity per year ( read: number of repeats of each year value ). I'd like to chart said values. I'm not sure how to make this happen. It seems like something I should be able to do, but perhaps I am wrong.

I am using Apple's Numbers '08, but if possible a general solution that multiple people could use would be preferred.

Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

On a new sheet, list the unique years in one column, then their quantity count in the column next to them. Select the entire range created, then create a chart.

I'm unsure from your question what you would specifically need more than this (and I work in Excel 2003).

Answer 2

You should use the countif() function: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel/HP052090291033.aspx

I did a similar thing to count how many hours of work there are for each upcoming version of my iPhone app. I was doing sumif(), but you just want countif().

See cells N4-N6 here: http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0AhL0igVI9HVNdGpaS3U1cS1qOGVNd3h0Slg0a21vUWc&hl=en