[excel] Combining COUNT IF AND VLOOK UP EXCEL

I have multiple spreadsheets in a workbook and I would like the following in basic English talk:

IF worksheet1(cell)A3, appears in 'worksheet2' column B - count how many times it appears in column b 'worksheet 2'

So in other words - Lets say A3 = BOB smith - in work sheet 1 and appears 4 times in worksheet 2 - I want the formula to count the fact that A3 'Bob smith' is in worksheet 2 4 times, and come back and tell me 4.

I have attempted to do separate calculations - with use of Vlookups - then in another cell to count/do if statement for example

=COUNTIF(VLOOKUP(A9,'To retire'!J:J,9,1))
=IF(J228=O233, 'worksheet2'!F440,0)
=VLOOKUP(A3,'worksheet2'!A:A,1,1)

Help would be very much appreciated, I am very stuck - I am unsure if I am looking into this too deeply or not enough! Thank you in advance

If your are referring to two worksheets please use this formula

=COUNTIF(Worksheet2!$A$1:$A$50,Worksheet1cellA1)

In case referring to to more than two worksheets please use this formula

=COUNTIF(Worksheet2!$A$1:$A$50,Worksheet1cellA1)+=COUNTIF
(Worksheet3!$A$1:$A$50,Worksheet1cellA1)+=
               COUNTIF(Worksheet4!$A$1:$A$50,Worksheet1cellA1)

You can combine this all into one formula, but you need to use a regular IF first to find out if the VLOOKUP came back with something, then use your COUNTIF if it did.

=IF(ISERROR(VLOOKUP(B1,Sheet2!A1:A9,1,FALSE)),"Not there",COUNTIF(Sheet2!A1:A9,B1))

In this case, Sheet2-A1:A9 is the range I was searching, and Sheet1-B1 had the value I was looking for ("To retire" in your case).

Try this:

=IF(NOT(ISERROR(MATCH(A3,worksheet2!A:A,0))),COUNTIF(worksheet2!A:A,A3),"No Match Found")

=COUNTIF() Is the function you are looking for

In a column adjacent to Worksheet1 column A:

=countif(worksheet2!B:B,worksheet1!A3)

This will search worksheet 2 ALL of column B for whatever you have in cell A3

See the MS Office reference for =COUNTIF(range,criteria) here!