Count how many times a specific character appears in a cell.
Copy this formula
=LEN(A2)-LEN(SUBSTITUTE(A2, ",", ""))Remove the character with SUBSTITUTE, then subtract the shortened length from the original length — the difference is how many were removed. Divide by the word length to count multi-character substrings.
=(LEN(A2)-LEN(SUBSTITUTE(A2, "ab", "")))/2→3Counts the two-character string "ab".
SUBSTITUTE is case-sensitive, so "A" and "a" count separately. Wrap in UPPER to ignore case.
Need a formula for your own data?
Describe what you want in plain language and let ExcelGPT write, explain, and verify the formula — free to start, no plugin.