COUNTUNIQUE

Counts the number of unique values within a list or given range.

Syntax:

COUNTUNIQUE(valueOne, [valueTwo],…)

valueOne is required, and the first range or value to consider.

[valueTwo],… is optional, and is the additional ranges or values to consider.

Example:

If valueOne, found in B1:B10, contains values White, Black, Silver, Blue, Red, White, Black, Green, White, Yellow:

COUNTUNIQUE(B1:B10)

returns 7

This example finds the number of unique colours from the 10 car colours that were observed.

	Car Number	Observed Car Colour
	A	B	C
1	1	White	7
2	2	Black
3	3	Silver
4	4	Blue
5	5	Red
6	6	White
7	7	Black
8	8	Green
9	9	White
10	10	Yellow

Application:

Imagine a bookstore owner wants to find out how many different book genres were sold in the past week. They have a sales log, and they'll use the COUNTUNIQUE function to count the unique entries in the 'Genre' column.

Here is a simplified version of their sales log:

	Order ID	Book Title	Genre
	A	B	C
1	1001	The Chrono-Lock Paradox	Science Fiction
2	1002	The Emerald Key	Mystery
3	1003	Cosmic Echoes	Science Fiction
4	1004	Stellaris Protocol	Science Fiction
5	1005	The Vanished Architect	Mystery
6	1006	Shadows of the City	Thriller
7	1007	The Whisperwood Scrolls	Fantasy
8	1008	Serpent's Crown	Fantasy
9	1009	Journey to the Ethereal	Science Fiction

To find the number of unique genres, the bookstore owner would use this formula:

COUNTUNIQUE(C1:C9)

This formula tells the function to look at the list of genres in cells C1 through C9.

The COUNTUNIQUE function then counts each genre once, no matter how many times it appears. The process would be:

Science Fiction (counts as 1)
Mystery (counts as 2)
Thriller (counts as 3)
Fantasy (counts as 4)

The final result of the formula would be 4. This shows the owner that they sold books from four distinct genres, which is more helpful for understanding their sales than just knowing the total number of books sold.

Result:

4