Most common text values in a range

Most common text values in a range in Excel

To list the most common text values in a column or a row, you can use a formula using the LET, UNIQUE, SORT, HSTACK, and COUNTIF functions.

How to find the most common text values in Excel?

Steps to find the most common text values in a column or a row:

  1. Open Excel.
  2. Type =LET(u,UNIQUE(C3:C12),TAKE(SORT(HSTACK(u,COUNTIF(C3:C12,u)),2,-1),3))
  3. Press Enter.
  4. The formula returns the top 3 most frequent products with their counts.

Example

This formula counts how often each unique product appears in C3:C12, sorts the products by frequency in descending order, and displays the top 3 results.

Formula:

=LET(u,UNIQUE(C3:C12),TAKE(SORT(HSTACK(u,COUNTIF(C3:C12,u)),2,-1),3))

Most common text values in a range in Excel

Now, evaluate the formula from the inside out.

Explanation

LET Function:

LET allows us to define variables within the formula to simplify it and improve its readability. Here, u represents the list of unique items in C3:C12.

UNIQUE(C3):

The UNIQUE function extracts all unique product names from the range C3:C12. For instance, if C3:C12 contains {Avocado, Orange, Lime, Mango, Orange, Orange, Lime, Orange, Lime, Avocado}, UNIQUE(C3:C12) will return {“Avocado”, “Orange”, “Lime”, “Mango”}, which represents each distinct product name in the list.

COUNTIF(C3, u):

COUNTIF(C3:C12, u) counts how often each unique product appears in C3:C12.
Since “u” is an array of unique product names, COUNTIF evaluates each product individually and returns an array of counts corresponding to each unique product. For example, it might return {2, 4, 3, 1} if Avocado appears twice, Orange four times, Lime three times, and Mango once.

HSTACK(u, COUNTIF(C3, u)):

HSTACK horizontally stacks the unique products array (u) with their counts, creating a two-column array.
The result might look like this: {{“Avocado”, 2}; {“Orange”, 4}; {“Lime”, 3}; {“Mango”, 1}}.

SORT(HSTACK(u, COUNTIF(C3, u)), 2, -1):

SORT organizes the array by the second column (the count) in descending order (-1). This sorting step ensures that products with the highest counts appear at the top of the list. The sorted array might look like this: {{“Orange”, 4}; {“Lime”, 3}; {“Avocado”, 2}; {“Mango”, 1}}.

TAKE(SORT(…), 3):

TAKE extracts the top 3 rows from the sorted array. This ensures that only the three most frequent products are displayed. Based on the previous example, TAKE would return {{“Orange”, 4}; {“Lime”, 3}; {“Avocado”, 2}}.

This formula counts each unique product in C3:C12, sorts them by frequency in descending order, and displays the top 3 most frequent products with their counts.

Workaround with SORTBY and UNIQUE

You can apply a formula that directly sorts the unique values based on their frequency without needing HSTACK.

=TAKE(SORTBY(UNIQUE(C3:C12), COUNTIF(C3:C12, UNIQUE(C3:C12)), -1), 3)

This formula directly sorts the unique values based on their frequency

An alternative approach could use INDEX, MATCH, and LARGE functions to retrieve top frequencies manually, though it would be more complex and less dynamic than using LET with dynamic arrays.

Download the practice file.