referencing a range of cells in a different worksheet via indexing vba

Question

In excel, I have (table containing many columns of categorical variables):

A   E
S   E
D   YU
R   T
FD  R
FD  RT
D   YU
S   T
AS  R
D   RR
D   R

I want (the frequency of each separate term):

A   1   E   2
S   2   YU  2
D   4   T   2
R   1   R   3
FD  2   RT  1
AS  1   RR  1

I am computing the frequency of each term. I can compute this individually by hand with:

Sub ff()
    Range("B1:B6").Select
    Selection.FormulaArray = "=COUNTIFS(Sheet1!C[-1],Sheet2!RC[-1]:R[5]C[-1])"
    Range("D1").Select

End Sub

but I want to loop through each column and put the frequency count on another sheet. so far, I have:

Sub Macro1()
    Sheets("Sheet1").Select
    lcol = Cells(1, Columns.Count).End(xlToLeft).Column
    N = Cells(Rows.Count, 1).End(xlUp).Row

    For j = 1 To lcol
        Range(Cells(1, j), Cells(N, j)).Select
        Selection.Copy
        Sheets("Sheet2").Select
        Cells(1, 2 * j - 1).Select
        ActiveSheet.Paste

        Columns(2 * j - 1).RemoveDuplicates Columns:=1, Header:=xlNo
        nr = Cells(Rows.Count, 2 * j - 1).End(xlUp).Row
        Range(Cells(1, 2 * j), Cells(nr, 2 * j)).Select
       *Selection.FormulaArray = "=COUNTIFS(Sheet1!C[" & j & "],Sheet2!RC[-1]:R[5]C[-1])"
        Sheets("Sheet1").Select
    Next j

End Sub

• is where I keep getting an error. How can I reference another worksheet range of cells in a formula notation via indexing. I would like to use j to reference the correct column.

I followed advice from Refereing to a range of cell in another sheet but they reference explicit cells. In my case, I will reference explicit cells, but by an index reference (j).

note that

Sheets(2).Range("F15:AK46").Select

gave me an error as well

Answer 1

As mentioned in the comments using the dictionary is the best approach. So your code will be as below. I don't know how you want your results to be printed or used, but for this example, the code will create a sheet called "Results" and if it existed it will just clear it and write new results:

Option Explicit
Sub CountOccurrences()
    Dim i As Long
    Dim j As Long
    Dim cnt As Long
    Dim lCol As Integer
    Dim N As Long
    Dim key As Variant
    Dim dict As Object
    Dim WS As Worksheet
    Dim WS_Result As Worksheet

    'Set objects and create a sheet to print results
    Set WS = ThisWorkbook.Worksheets("Sheet1") 'change the name of the sheet to whatever you have

    On Error GoTo Handler
    Set WS_Result = ThisWorkbook.Worksheets("Results")
    On Error GoTo 0

    WS_Result.Cells.Clear

    'Count the columns
    lCol = WS.Cells(1, WS.Columns.Count).End(xlToLeft).Column

    'Loop thru all columns and count occurrences
    For j = 1 To lCol
        'Find the last row
        N = WS.Cells(WS.Rows.Count, lCol).End(xlUp).Row

        'Create a new dictionary
        Set dict = CreateObject("scripting.dictionary")

        For i = 1 To N
            key = WS.Cells(i, j).Value
            If dict.exists(key) = False Then
                dict.Add key, 1 'key=cell value, item=count of that value
            Else
                dict(key) = dict(key) + 1
            End If
        Next i

        'Print the results
        cnt = 0
        For Each key In dict.keys
            cnt = cnt + 1
            WS_Result.Cells(cnt, (j - 1) * 2 + 1).Value = key
            WS_Result.Cells(cnt, (j - 1) * 2 + 2).Value = dict(key)
        Next key

        'Destroy the dictionary to startover
        Set dict = Nothing
    Next j

    Exit Sub
Handler:
    Set WS_Result = ThisWorkbook.Worksheets.Add
    WS_Result.Name = "Results"
    Resume
End Sub

snapshot of the result