There are several ways you can use the COUNTIF() function in Excel. This post showcases three (3) possible applications involving the use of wildcards (see more on wildcards here)

1. Count the number of cells with a known number of characters – e.g cells containing only three-letter words – in a range

=COUNTIF(datarange, "???")

2. Count the number of cells that start with a particular character e.g. cells starting with the letter ‘s’

=COUNTIF(datarange, "s*")

3. Count the number of cells that contain a particular character e.g. cells containing the letter ‘s’

=COUNTIF(datarange, "*s*")

For more on wildcards, click here