Hey Neik -

Thanks for taking the time to look into this.

I have a column that's supposed to be a serial ranking of another
column's values. The RANK() function will have duplicate rank numbers
for duplicate values, so the COUNTIF-1 is supposed to correct that.
The final column you'll see here is a rank of the profit:

Menu Item    Price    Cost    Profit    Rank
A    $12.95     $3.35     $9.60     4
B    $7.95     $2.00     $5.95     10
C    $17.95     $6.03     $11.92     1
D    $11.95     $4.00     $7.95     7
E    $14.95     $6.27     $8.68     5
F    $9.95     $4.00     $5.95     12
G    $16.95     $5.76     $11.19     3
H    $10.95     $3.50     $7.45     9
I    $14.95     $3.19     $11.76     2
J    $9.95     $2.00     $7.95     8
K    $11.95     $3.82     $8.13     6
L    $7.50     $2.50     $5.00     12

The formula for the profit is simple subtraction:
=IF(C10=0,"",B10-C10)

So you see there are two '12's in the rank.
This is the formula that I'm using:
=IF(D10 ="","",RANK(D10,$D$10:$D$28,0)+COUNTIF(D$10:$D10,D10 )-1)
This formula worked perfectly -- meaning a correct serial ranking of
the values with no skips or duplications -- in other areas of the
spreadsheet.

( note that actual values start on row 10 of the spreadsheet ).

The COUNTIF is supposed to add an extra value for the number of
instances of a value. Since you don't want to add the total count of
$5.95s in the range, but only the count so far, the range of the
COUNTIF must change throughout the column. So the final formula looks
like this:
=IF(D21 ="","",RANK(D21,$D$10:$D$28,0)+COUNTIF(D$10:$D21,D21 )-1)

So, to troubleshoot, I split the formula into two columns, one for the
RANK() function, and one for the COUNTIF function:
Profit    Count    Rank    Count+Rank
$9.60     0    4    4
$5.95     0    10    10
$11.92     0    1    1
$7.95     0    7    7
$8.68     0    5    5
$5.95     1    11    12
$11.19     0    3    3
$7.45     0    9    9
$11.76     0    2    2
$7.95     1    7    8
$8.13     0    6    6
$5.00     0    12    12

The formula for the count column:
=IF(D10 ="","",COUNTIF(D$10:$D10,D10 )-1
rank:
=RANK($D10,$D$10:$D$28)
count+rank:
=F10+G10

So it looks like the problem is with the RANK function. The RANK has
given the values of 10 and 11 to $5.95 -- yet it gave 7 to both $7.95.
It seems to not work as advertised on the $5.95 values -- the
documentation says that it should give the same rank value to the same
values. I don't know if it's a decimal error, since the profit column
is actually a formula, and perhaps at some precision both of the
$5.95s are not the same.

In any case, this is the best that I can re-create on a fresh
spreadsheet. On my original spreadsheet, I do have a column that ranks
correctly, but it refers two other columns for the complete formula,
which is why I was looking for a merge formulas feature. I need to
have the ranking in a single column, like in other areas of the
spreadsheet.