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Check if there are exactly X players (or entities) matching a selector?

For example, you want to check if a team has exactly 2 players.

📝 Note
if a selector such as @a[team=red] selects Alice, Bob, Carol, Dave, then @a[team=red,limit=2] will select Alice, Bob and run the command on those players. limit=2 does not mean “only run if there are 2 players”, but rather “limit the players selected to at most 2”. (Same for c in bedrock).

A command will still run (and potentially succeed once) even if @a[team=red,limit=2] only finds one player, and succeeding once is all that is needed for conditional blocks coming off of the command block to run.

Java and Bedrock

📝 Note
This method will work in Java too, but it’s recommended to use the Java exclusive method

The easiest way to do this in bedrock is to have the found entities count up the score of another entity or a fake player (the latter is currently a little harder to check for their score, so it is not used in this tutorial).

Using a dummy scoreboard objective named result and an entity with the counter tag, we can count how many players there are in team red:

scoreboard players set @e[tag=counter] result 0
execute as @a[team=red] run scoreboard players add @e[tag=counter] result 1
execute as @e[tag=counter,scores={result=2}] run say there are exactly 2 people on the red team

You can also use ranges

execute as @e[tag=counter,scores={result=2..}] run say there are 2 or more people on the red team
execute as @e[tag=counter,scores={result=..2}] run say there are 2 or less people on the red team
execute as @e[tag=counter,scores={result=2..9}] run say there are between 2 and 9 people on the red team

Bedrock

| 📝 Note | |———| |It is not recommended to use this method|

You can use a comparator with the /testfor command, the output, in signal strength, is the same as the number of online players.

Java

Method 1: Storing the found entities using execute store

Introduced in 1.13 and replacing the /stats command, the store subcommand of execute is able to store the result of the command after it in multiple ways, including into a scoreboard.
Using a dummy scoreboard objective name result and the fake player #count, we can count the amount of entities a command finds and then execute off of that. Note that we can use ranges

execute store result score #count result if entity @a[team=red]
execute if score #count result matches 2 run say there are exactly 2 players on team red.

The fake player can be replaced by an entity, although it is not recommended, which then changes the second command to

execute if entity @e[<your entity>,scores={result=2}] run say there are exactly 2 players on team red.

It also works with ranges

execute if score #count result matches 2.. run say there are 2 or more players on team red.
execute if score #count result matches ..2 run say there are 2 or less players on team red.

Method 2: Checking the command block’s SuccessCount

📝 Note
This method is outdated and should not be used in current versions of the game
For the sake of allowing users of 1.12 and below to access this for them still useful information, it is kept around

When a /testfor command is run, the command block’s SuccessCount NBT tag will be set equal to the number of entities that the selector found. You can then use a /testforblock command in another block to check whether the first command block’s SuccessCount is a certain number.

For example, this will test for exactly 2 players on the red team (no more, no less):

testfor @a[team=red]
testforblock <x> <y> <z> command_block -1 {SuccessCount:2}

Change <x> <y> <z> in the second command block to the coordinates of the first command block. You may also need to change command_block to chain_command_block or repeating_command_block.

The second command will only succeed if the first command has a SuccessCount of 1 (it found exactly 1 player). You can then run a conditional chain block off of that second command to activate whatever you want to happen when there is exactly 1 player:

Method 3: With /stats (1.8-1.12)

📝 Note
This method is outdated and can not be used in current versions of the game

Stats are harder to understand and set up, but gives you more flexibility (works in functions, can test a range rather than exact values, can test things other than SuccessCount). If you have not used /stats in the past, you will need to watch/read a tutorial (or multiple) and play around with them until you are confident in its usage. Then: