How to count instances of character in SQL Column

DECLARE @StringToFind VARCHAR(100) = "Text To Count"

SELECT (LEN([Field To Search]) - LEN(REPLACE([Field To Search],@StringToFind,'')))/COALESCE(NULLIF(LEN(@StringToFind), 0), 1) --protect division from zero
FROM [Table To Search]

This gave me accurate results every time...

This is in my Stripes field...

Yellow, Yellow, Yellow, Yellow, Yellow, Yellow, Black, Yellow, Yellow, Red, Yellow, Yellow, Yellow, Black

• 11 Yellows
• 2 Black
• 1 Red

SELECT (LEN(Stripes) - LEN(REPLACE(Stripes, 'Red', ''))) / LEN('Red') 
  FROM t_Contacts

This snippet works in the specific situation where you have a boolean: it answers "how many non-Ns are there?".

SELECT LEN(REPLACE(col, 'N', ''))

If, in a different situation, you were actually trying to count the occurrences of a certain character (for example 'Y') in any given string, use this:

SELECT LEN(col) - LEN(REPLACE(col, 'Y', ''))

In SQL Server:

SELECT LEN(REPLACE(myColumn, 'N', '')) 
FROM ...