Count the items in a column with multiple values?

Question

Hi all
Is there a way to count the items in a column that allows multiple values?
Example list:
Course title:                        Participants:
Visual Basic Introduction     John Smith; Lois Lane; Clark Kent
Visual Basic Advanced         John Smith; Lex Luthor
The result should be "3" and "2" (number of participants), which should be displayed in the list or on the page.
Is this possible?
( I am using Sharepoint 2007 and have access to Sharepoint designer.)
Thanks!

Answer 1

Hi dee,
We can use XSLT to do this in Data View Web Part.
First, display your list in data view web part.
Insert a new column in the data view, used to display the count.
Switch to code mode, add following code within the <td></td>.
<td>
<xsl:choose>
<xsl:when test="@Title!=''">
<xsl:variable name="count">
<xsl:call-template name="countChar">
<xsl:with-param name="str" select="@Title" />
<xsl:with-param name="count" select="1" />
</xsl:call-template>
</xsl:variable>
count is <xsl:value-of select="$count" />
</xsl:when>
<xsl:otherwise>
count is <xsl:value-of select="0" />
</xsl:otherwise>
</xsl:choose>
</td>
And put the following template definition outside all the other templates.
<xsl:template name="countChar">
<xsl:param name="str" />
<xsl:param name="count" />
<xsl:choose>
<xsl:when test="contains($str, ';')">
<xsl:call-template name="countChar">
<xsl:with-param name="str" select="substring-after($str, ';')" />
<xsl:with-param name="count" select="number($count) + 1" />
</xsl:call-template>
</xsl:when>
<xsl:otherwise>
<xsl:value-of select="$count" />
</xsl:otherwise>
</xsl:choose>
</xsl:template>
Done and then you will see the count in the td cell.
I test with Title column and cut off string with ";" character.
Thanks & Regards,
Emir Liu
TechNet Subscriber Support in forum
If you have any feedback on our support, please contact [email protected] 
Emir Liu
TechNet Community Support