Mac Forum / Applications / Excel / December 2007

There is no comparable syntax in XL. Instead you need to combine two or
more tests.

The easiest way to meet the specification above, using XL functions, is
probably:

  =SUMPRODUCT(--(LEN(rng)=2),--(rng>="A"),--(rng<"E"))

Note that, through XL04, rng cannot be an entire column, nor can it be
two-dimensional.

You could instead create a User Defined Function that would allow you to
use VBA's 'Like' comparison operator:

   Public Function CountLike( _
              ByRef rng As Excel.Range, _
              ByVal regexp As String) As Variant
       Dim rArea As Range
       Dim rCell As Range
       Dim nSum As Long
       On Error GoTo ErrorHandler
       For Each rArea In rng.Areas
           For Each rCell In rArea
               nSum = nSum - (rCell.Text Like regexp)
           Next rCell
       Next rArea
       CountLike = nSum
       Exit Function
  ErrorHandler:
       CountLike = CVErr(xlErrValue)
   End Function

which you could then call as

  =CountLike(A1:Z100, "[A-D]?")