CGM3, thanks for the reply.

I think your work is a help. But I am confused by the absolute cell reference $A$1.

CountIf() is running through a range of multi columnar data. It might find a matching value in E5, or G7 or AB15, In this case the count would be 3.

But we really don't want it to count unless the value in a cell 3 columns to the right is "x". I don't see how I can use an absolute cell reference, because we don't know where CountIf() will find a match.

Thanks again for the example.

-DL