title: Is there a way to auto sum the return of concatenated countifs?
body: <p>I am trying to calculate a total using auto sum. I don't know how to take the <code>countif</code> data to use in an auto sum formula when there are more than one.</p>
  
  <p>The <code>countif</code>s calculate the occurrence of a fixed set of categories select-able through a drop-down menu with data validation. Because in my case there are 5 options the final calculation cell has 5 <code>countif</code>s. However, there are 5 columns with the same setup and I want to be able to total the data.</p>
  
  <pre><code>=CONCATENATE("Jeans: "&amp;COUNTIF(J19:J29, "Jeans"), " " ,"C&amp;J: "&amp;
   COUNTIF(J18:J29, "Coats &amp; Jackets"), " " ,"Tops: "&amp;
   COUNTIF(J18:J29, "Tops"), " " ,"Drs: "&amp;
   COUNTIF(J18:J29, "Dresses &amp; Skirts"), " " ,"Acs: "&amp;
   COUNTIF(J18:J29, "Accessories"))
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>The return for the above code looks like:</p>
  
  <pre><code>Jeans: 0 C&amp;J: 0 Tops: 0 Drs: 0 Acs: 0
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Simply adding the cells together has not worked. Right now I am trying to figure out how to pull each value.</p>
  
  <p>Adding all 5 columns together I expect to have something like:</p>
  
  <pre><code>Month total: Jeans: 30 C&amp;J: 12 Tops: 45 Drs: 4 Acs: 10
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Eventually, I would like to be able to add each total together for a grand total.</p>
  
  <p><a href="https://i.stack.imgur.com/mmBLV.jpg" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.stack.imgur.com/mmBLV.jpg" alt="example with highlighted areas to illustrate explanation"></a></p>