EXCEL question

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I know it's a form of COUNTIF, but can't recall the specification of the criteria, e.g. =COUNTIF(A1:E5,"=John"), except a cell reference would be used instead of the literal 'John'. IIRC, it involved using a single or double ampersand (&)....

Might you be thinking of COUNTIFS?
The COUNTIFS equivalent of =COUNTIF($A$1:$E$5,G1) would be =COUNTIFS($A$1:$E$5,"="&G1).
 
Thanks for those replies.

Yes, the single cell reference does work, so I don't need the previous solution. Just bugs me that I can't remember, or find that document