Excel VBA CountIF To Search For String Array - vba

Question

How can I use the COUNTIF() function to count only certain text strings that exist in the range?
I tried to use the below, but I get an error of
Syntax error
This is the syntax I attempted
Dim worksheetmaster As String = "Master"
Dim worksheettocheck As String = "New"
Dim softcount As Int, i As Long, hardcount As Int
softcount = Evaluate("=COUNTIF(Range('" & worksheettocheck & "'!A:A'" & worksheetmaster & "'!A" & i & ")"Soft")")
hardcount = Evaluate("=COUNTIF(Range('" & worksheettocheck & "'!A:A'" & worksheetmaster & "'!A" & i & ")"Hard")")
EDIT
I tried to use this syntax without the Range and am still getting the error
hardcount = Evaluate("=COUNTIF('" & worksheettocheck & "'!A:A'" & worksheetmaster & "'!A" & i & ")"Hard"")

Answer 1

To match in column A with Hard in column B, this is how it should be:
hardcount = Application.Evaluate("COUNTIFS('" & worksheettocheck & "'!A:A,'" & worksheetmaster & "'!A" & i & ",'" & worksheettocheck & "'!B:B, ""Hard"")")
softcount = Application.Evaluate("COUNTIFS('" & worksheettocheck & "'!A:A,'" & worksheetmaster & "'!A" & i & ",'" & worksheettocheck & "'!B:B, ""Soft"")")

Answer 2

Your first syntax errors are here:
Dim worksheetmaster As String = "Master"
Dim worksheettocheck As String = "New"
You can't do that. Instead, you would need to use:
Dim worksheetmaster As String
Dim worksheettocheck As String
worksheetmaster = "Master"
worksheettocheck = "New"
Even better would be to assign them to point diectly at the worksheets, but let's work with your code as much as possible instead of totally rewriting it.
For the countif, you cannot join ranges that way. You haven't even assigned a value to i, but assuming i = 1, your code:
softcount = Evaluate("=COUNTIF(Range('" & worksheettocheck & "'!A:A'" & worksheetmaster & "'!A" & i & ")"Soft")")
evaluates to total nonsense in VBA:
softcount = Evaluate(=COUNTIF(Range('New'!A:A'Master'!A1)Soft))
Now, from what I can tell, what you are trying to do is to count how many times the value in cell Master!A & i appears in the range New!A:A, depending whether Master!A & i="Soft" or Master!A & i="Hard". So let's see if we can find code that will do that.
For data we enter "Soft" into Master!A1 and "Hard" into Master!A2. Then we enter random "Soft" or "Hard" into various cells in the column New!A:A.
Now your code looks like this:
Dim worksheetmaster As String
Dim worksheettocheck As String
Dim softcount As Long, i As Long, hardcount As Long
worksheetmaster = "Master"
worksheettocheck = "New"
i = 1
softcount = Application.CountIf(Sheets(worksheettocheck).Range("A:A"), Sheets(worksheetmaster).Range("A" & i).Value)
i = 2
hardcount = Application.CountIf(Sheets(worksheettocheck).Range("A:A"), Sheets(worksheetmaster).Range("A" & i).Value)
This is inefficient and limited, but it retains as much of your original code as possible, and it works.
Edited to add: if "Hard" is in Master!B & i instead of A & i then the code becomes:
i = 1
softcount = Application.CountIf(Sheets(worksheettocheck).Range("A:A"), Sheets(worksheetmaster).Range("A" & i).Value)
hardcount = Application.CountIf(Sheets(worksheettocheck).Range("A:A"), Sheets(worksheetmaster).Range("B" & i).Value)