Here is an interesting problem to start your day.
Let’s say you work as DNA sequencing engineer at The Enterprise. And you just unlocked the sequence that is responsible for all male problems. The early onset of baldness. The sequence code is AAAA. And you want to find out how many times this sequence is found in a sample of DNA strings, in the range B6:B19. Essentially you want this:
So how do you write the formula?
Counting occurrences using Excel formulas
We can use LEN() and SUBSTITUTE() formulas to solve this problem.
Let’s say your target to find is in $C$3 and the full sequence is in B6. We can use below formula to find how many times C3 is present in B6.
=(LEN(B6) - LEN(SUBSTITUTE(B6,$C$3,""))/LEN($C$3)
How does this formula work?
Let’s go inside out (said male baldness to the head):
SUBSTITUTE(B6,$C$3,””): This replaces all occurrences of C3 in B6 with empty string.
LEN(SUBSTITUTE(…)): This will return the length of new text after replacing all C3s in B6.
LEN(B6): this simply gives us the length of original text
LEN(B6)-LEN(SUBSTITUTE(…)): Will give us the count of total letters replaced.
(LEN(..)-LEN(..))/LEN($C$3): Tells us how many times C3 is present in B6.
So there you go.
Download Example Workbook:
Click here to download the example workbook. Play with the formulas to learn more.
A challenge for you – Find total occurrence count with single formula:
Let’s say you want to find out how many times $C$3 is present in a range – B6:B19 with one formula. How would you write it?
Please post your answers in comments section.
Related formulas:
Check out below examples to learn more.
- Array formula to count maximum text occurrences in a range
- How to count words in a cell using formulas
- How many times a list of values occurs in another list?
- VLOOKUP based on pattern
PS: Thanks to Simran who emailed me this question.
PPS: The writer is not balding. He still sports plenty of pointy hair 🙂
12 Responses to “Analyzing Search Keywords using Excel : Array Formulas in Real Life”
Very interesting Chandoo, as always. Personally I find endless uses for formulae such as {=sum(if(B$2:B$5=$A2,$C$2$C$5))}, just the flexibility in absolute and relative relative referencing and multiple conditions gives it the edge over dsum and others methods.
I've added to my blog a piece on SQL in VBA that I think might be of interest to you http://aviatormonkey.wordpress.com/2009/02/10/lesson-one-sql-in-vba/ . It's a bit techie, but I think you might like it.
Keep up the good work, aviatormonkey
Hi Chandoo,
You might find this coded solution I posted on a forum interesting.
http://www.excelforum.com/excel-programming/680810-create-tag-cloud-in-vba-possible.html
[...] under certain circumstances. One of the tips involved arranging search keywords in excel using Array Forumlas. Basically, if you need to know how frequent a word or group of keywords appear, you can use this [...]
@Aviatormonkey: Thanks for sharing the url. I found it a bit technical.. but very interesting.
@Andy: Looks like Jarad, the person who emailed me this problem has posted the same in excelforum too. Very good solution btw...
Realy great article
"You can take this basic model and extend it to include parameters like number of searches each key phrase has, how long the users stay on the site etc. to enhance the way tag cloud is generated and colored."
How would you go about doing this? I think it would need some VB
Hi,
I found the usage very interesting, but is giving me hard time because the LENs formula that use ranges are not considering the full range, in other words, the LEN formula is only bringing results from the respective "line" cell.
Using the example, when I place the formula to calculate the frequency for "windows" brings me only 1 result, not 11 as displayed in the example. It seems that the LEN formula using ranges is considering the respective line within the range, not the full range.
Any hint?
@Thiago
You have to enter the formula as an Array Formula
Enter the Formula and press Ctrl+Shift+Enter
Not just Enter
Thank you, Hui! I couldn't work out how this didn't work
is there a limit to the number of lines it can analyse.
Ie i am trying to get this to work on a list of sentances 1500 long.
@Gary
In Excel 2010/2013 Excel is only limited by available memory,
So just give it a go
As always try on a copy of the file first if you have any doubts
Apologies if I am missing something, but coudn't getting frequency be easier with Countif formula. Something like this - COUNTIF(Range with text,"*"&_cell with keyword_&"*")
Apologies if I missed, but what is the Array Formula to:
1. Analyze a list of URL's or a list of word phrases to understand frequency;
2. List in a nearby column from most used words to least used words;
3. Next to the list of words the count of occurrences.