Day 74 · Friday, 16 October 2026Today
UNIQUE strips a log down to the categories that actually appear; SORT nested around it puts them in alphabetical order instead of log order; and COUNTIF, pointed straight at the cells that result lands in, counts each one without a category name ever being typed twice.
You triage tickets for an internal IT helpdesk, and the raw export lists one row per ticket with no summary of what's actually coming in. In D2, use SORT and UNIQUE together to pull the distinct categories out of B2:B11 in alphabetical order — one formula, typed once, that fills D2 down through D5 on its own. In E2:E5, use COUNTIF to count how many tickets belong to each of those categories, pointing it at the category already sitting in column D rather than typing the name again.
The last 14 days. Today's challenge is free while your streak is alive; Pro opens every past day too.