Excel countif and not

In this example, the goal is to count cells in a range that are not blank (i.e. not empty). There are several ways to go about this task, depending on your needs. The article below explains different approaches.

COUNTA function

While the COUNT function only counts numbers, the COUNTA function counts both numbers and text. This means you can use COUNTA as a simple way to count cells that are not blank. In the example shown, the formula in F6 uses COUNTA like this:

=COUNTA(C5:C16) // returns 9

Since there are nine cells in the range C5:C16 that contain values, COUNTA returns 9. COUNTA is fully automatic, so there is nothing to configure.

COUNTIFS function

You can also use the COUNTIFS function to count cells that are not blank like this:

=COUNTIFS(C5:C16,"<>") // returns 9

The «<>» operator means «not equal to» in Excel, so this formula literally means count cells not equal to nothing. Because COUNTIFS can handle multiple criteria, we can easily extend this formula to count cells that are not empty in Group «A» like this:

=COUNTIFS(B5:B16,"A",C5:C16,"<>") // returns 4

The first range/criteria pair selects cells that are in Group A only. The second range/criteria pair selects cells that are not empty. The result from COUNTIFS is 4, since there are 4 cells in Group A that are not empty. You can swap the order of the range/criteria pairs with the same result.

See also: 50 examples of formula criteria.

SUMPRODUCT function

One problem with COUNTA and COUNTIFS is that they will also count empty strings («») returned by formulas as not blank, even though these cells are intended to be blank. For example, if A1 contains 21, this formula in B1 will return an empty string:

=IF(A1>30,"Overdue","")

However, COUNTA and COUNTIFS will still count B1 as not empty. If you run into this problem, you can use the SUMPRODUCT function to count cells that are not blank like this:

=SUMPRODUCT(--(C5:C16<>""))

The expression C5:C16<>»» returns an array that contains 12 TRUE and FALSE values, and the double negative (—) converts the TRUE and FALSE values to 1s and 0s:

=SUMPRODUCT({1;1;0;1;1;0;1;1;1;0;1;1}) // returns 9

The result is 9 as before. But this formula will also ignore cells that contain formulas that return empty strings.

You can easily extend the logic used in SUMPRODUCT with other functions as needed. For example, the variant below uses the LEN function to count cells that have a length greater than zero:

=SUMPRODUCT(--(LEN(C5:C16)>0)) // returns 9

You can extend the formula to count cells that are not blank in Group A like this:

=SUMPRODUCT((LEN(C5:C16)>0)*(B5:B16="A"))

This is an example of using Boolean algebra in a formula. The double negative is no longer needed in this case because the math operation of multiplying the two arrays together automatically converts the TRUE and FALSE values to 1s and 0s:

=SUMPRODUCT({1;1;0;1;1;0;0;0;0;0;0;0}) // returns 4

The final result is 4, since there are four cells in Group A that are not blank in C5:C16.

Note: one reason the Boolean syntax above is useful is because you can drop the same logical expressions into a newer function like the FILTER function to extract cells that meet the same criteria. The SUMPRODUCT function is more versatile than RACON functions like COUNTIFS, SUMIFS, etc. and you will often see it used in formulas that solve tricky problems. You can read more about SUMPRODUCT here. 

COUNTIF function

Use COUNTIF, one of the statistical functions, to count the number of cells that meet a criterion; for example, to count the number of times a particular city appears in a customer list.

In its simplest form, COUNTIF says:

• =COUNTIF(Where do you want to look?, What do you want to look for?)

For example:

• =COUNTIF(A2:A5,»London»)

• =COUNTIF(A2:A5,A4)

COUNTIF(range, criteria)

Argument name	Description
range    (required)	The group of cells you want to count. Range can contain numbers, arrays, a named range, or references that contain numbers. Blank and text values are ignored. Learn how to select ranges in a worksheet.
criteria    (required)	A number, expression, cell reference, or text string that determines which cells will be counted. For example, you can use a number like 32, a comparison like «>32», a cell like B4, or a word like «apples». COUNTIF uses only a single criteria. Use COUNTIFS if you want to use multiple criteria.

Examples

To use these examples in Excel, copy the data in the table below, and paste it in cell A1 of a new worksheet.

Data	Data
apples	32
oranges	54
peaches	75
apples	86
Formula	Description
=COUNTIF(A2:A5,»apples»)	Counts the number of cells with apples in cells A2 through A5. The result is 2.
=COUNTIF(A2:A5,A4)	Counts the number of cells with peaches (the value in A4) in cells A2 through A5. The result is 1.
=COUNTIF(A2:A5,A2)+COUNTIF(A2:A5,A3)	Counts the number of apples (the value in A2), and oranges (the value in A3) in cells A2 through A5. The result is 3. This formula uses COUNTIF twice to specify multiple criteria, one criteria per expression. You could also use the COUNTIFS function.
=COUNTIF(B2:B5,»>55″)	Counts the number of cells with a value greater than 55 in cells B2 through B5. The result is 2.
=COUNTIF(B2:B5,»<>»&B4)	Counts the number of cells with a value not equal to 75 in cells B2 through B5. The ampersand (&) merges the comparison operator for not equal to (<>) and the value in B4 to read =COUNTIF(B2:B5,»<>75″). The result is 3.
=COUNTIF(B2:B5,»>=32″)-COUNTIF(B2:B5,»<=85″)	Counts the number of cells with a value greater than (>) or equal to (=) 32 and less than (<) or equal to (=) 85 in cells B2 through B5. The result is 1.
=COUNTIF(A2:A5,»*»)	Counts the number of cells containing any text in cells A2 through A5. The asterisk (*) is used as the wildcard character to match any character. The result is 4.
=COUNTIF(A2:A5,»?????es»)	Counts the number of cells that have exactly 7 characters, and end with the letters «es» in cells A2 through A5. The question mark (?) is used as the wildcard character to match individual characters. The result is 2.

Common Problems

Problem	What went wrong
Wrong value returned for long strings.	The COUNTIF function returns incorrect results when you use it to match strings longer than 255 characters. To match strings longer than 255 characters, use the CONCATENATE function or the concatenate operator &. For example, =COUNTIF(A2:A5,»long string»&»another long string»).
No value returned when you expect a value.	Be sure to enclose the criteria argument in quotes.
A COUNTIF formula receives a #VALUE! error when referring to another worksheet.	This error occurs when the formula that contains the function refers to cells or a range in a closed workbook and the cells are calculated. For this feature to work, the other workbook must be open.

Best practices

Do this	Why
Be aware that COUNTIF ignores upper and lower case in text strings.	Criteria aren’t case sensitive. In other words, the string «apples» and the string «APPLES» will match the same cells.
Use wildcard characters.	Wildcard characters —the question mark (?) and asterisk (*)—can be used in criteria. A question mark matches any single character. An asterisk matches any sequence of characters. If you want to find an actual question mark or asterisk, type a tilde (~) in front of the character. For example, =COUNTIF(A2:A5,»apple?») will count all instances of «apple» with a last letter that could vary.
Make sure your data doesn’t contain erroneous characters.	When counting text values, make sure the data doesn’t contain leading spaces, trailing spaces, inconsistent use of straight and curly quotation marks, or nonprinting characters. In these cases, COUNTIF might return an unexpected value. Try using the CLEAN function or the TRIM function.
For convenience, use named ranges	COUNTIF supports named ranges in a formula (such as =COUNTIF(fruit,»>=32″)-COUNTIF(fruit,»>85″). The named range can be in the current worksheet, another worksheet in the same workbook, or from a different workbook. To reference from another workbook, that second workbook also must be open.

Note: The COUNTIF function will not count cells based on cell background or font color. However, Excel supports User-Defined Functions (UDFs) using the Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) operations on cells based on background or font color. Here is an example of how you can Count the number of cells with specific cell color by using VBA.

Need more help?

You can always ask an expert in the Excel Tech Community or get support in the Answers community.

See also

COUNTIFS function

IF function

COUNTA function

Overview of formulas in Excel

IFS function

SUMIF function

Author: Oscar Cronquist Article last updated on January 08, 2023

The COUNTIF function is very capable of counting non-empty values, I will show you how in this article. Excel can also highlight empty cells using Conditional formatting.

I will discuss and demonstrate the limitations of using the COUNTIF function and other equivalent functions that you also can use.

1. Count not blank cells — COUNTIF function

Column B above has a few blank cells, they are in fact completely empty.

Formula in cell D3:

=COUNTIF(B3:B13,»<>»)

The first argument in the COUNTIF function is the cell range where you want to count matching cells to a specific value, the second argument is the value you want to count.

COUNTIF(range, criteria)

In this case, it is «<>» meaning not equal to and then nothing, so the COUNTIF function counts the number of cells that are not equal to nothing. In other words, cells that are not empty.

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2. Count not blank cells — COUNTA function

The COUNTA function is even easier to use, you don’t need to enter more than the cell range in one argument. The COUNTA function is designed to count non-empty cells.

COUNTA(value1, [value2], …)

Formula in cell D4:

=COUNTA(B3:B13)

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3. COUNTIF and COUNTA function return unexpected results

There are, however, situations where the COUNTIF and COUNTA function return unexpected results if you are not aware of how they work.

There are blank cells in column C, shown in the picture above, that look empty but they are not. Column D shows what they actually contain and column E shows the character length of the content.

Cell C5 and C9 contain a formula that returns a blank, both the COUNTIF and the COUNTA function count those cells as non-empty.

Cell C8 has two space characters and cell C12 has one space character, column E reveals their existence by counting character length. The COUNTIF and the COUNTA function count those cells as non-empty as well.

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4. Count not blank cells — SUMPRODUCT function

The following formula counts all non-empty values in cell range C3:C13 except formulas that return nothing. It checks if the values in cell range C3:C13 are not equal to nothing.

Formula in cell B16:

=SUMPRODUCT((C3:C13<>»»)*1)

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4.1 Explaining formula in cell B16

Step 1 — Check if cells are not empty

In this case, the logical expression counts cells that contain space characters but not formulas that return nothing.

The less than and the greater than characters are logical operators, the result are always boolean values.

C3:C13<>»»

returns

{TRUE; TRUE; FALSE; TRUE; TRUE; TRUE; FALSE; TRUE; TRUE; TRUE; TRUE}

Step 2 — Convert boolean values

The SUMPRODUCT function can’t sum boolean values, we need to multiply with one to create an array containing 0’s (zero) and 1’s.

They are their numerical equivalents:
True = 1
FALSE = 0 (zero)

(C3:C13<>»»)*1

becomes

{TRUE; TRUE; FALSE; TRUE; TRUE; TRUE; FALSE; TRUE; TRUE; TRUE; TRUE}*1

and returns

{1; 1; 0; 1; 1; 1; 0; 1; 1; 1; 1}

Step 3 — Sum numbers

Why use the SUMPRODUCT function and not the SUM function? The SUMPRODUCT function can perform calculations in the arguments without the need to enter the formula as an array formula.

Array formulas are great but if possible avoid as much as you can. Excel 365 users don’t have this problem, dynamic array formulas are entered as regular formulas.

SUMPRODUCT((C3:C13<>»»)*1)

becomes

SUMPRODUCT({1; 1; 0; 1; 1; 1; 0; 1; 1; 1; 1})

and returns 9 in cell B16.

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5. Regard formulas that return nothing to be blank and space characters to also be blank

The formula above in cell C16 counts only non-empty values, it considers formulas that return nothing to be blank and space characters to also be blank. This is made possible by the TRIM function that removes leading and ending space characters.

=SUMPRODUCT((TRIM(C3:C13)<>»»)*1)

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5.1 Explaining formula in cell B16

Step 1 — Remove space characters

TRIM(C3:C13)

returns

{«Green»; «Blue»; «»; «Red»; «Cyan»; «»; «»; «Yellow»; «Orange»; «»; «Brown»}

Step 2 — Identify not blank cells

TRIM(C3:C13)<>»»

becomes

{«Green»; «Blue»; «»; «Red»; «Cyan»; «»; «»; «Yellow»; «Orange»; «»; «Brown»}<>»»

and returns

{TRUE; TRUE; FALSE; TRUE; TRUE; FALSE; FALSE; TRUE; TRUE; FALSE; TRUE}

Step 3 — Multiply with 1

TRIM(C3:C13)<>»»)*1

becomes

{TRUE; TRUE; FALSE; TRUE; TRUE; FALSE; FALSE; TRUE; TRUE; FALSE; TRUE}*1

and returns

{1; 1; 0; 1; 1; 0; 0; 1; 1; 0; 1}

Step 4 — Sum numbers in array

SUMPRODUCT((TRIM(C3:C13)<>»»)*1)

becomes

SUMPRODUCT({1; 1; 0; 1; 1; 0; 0; 1; 1; 0; 1})

and returns 7.

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A list of all published articles.

• COUNTIF не пустой в Excel

COUNTIF Excel не пустой (оглавление)

• COUNTIF не пустой в Excel
• Синтаксис COUNTIF не пустой в Excel
• Как использовать COUNTIF Not Blank в Excel?

COUNTIF не пустой в Excel

Функция COUNTIF Not Blank используется для подсчета любого определенного числа / диапазона текста любого столбца без учета какой-либо пустой ячейки. Это становится возможным только при использовании функции COUNTIF, которая следует заданным критериям для получения желаемого результата.

Синтаксис COUNTIF не пустой в Excel

COUNTIF (Диапазон, Критерии)

Синтаксис для функции COUNTIF включает в себя 2 параметра:

Диапазон = Это диапазон, который нам нужно выбрать, из которого мы будем получать счет.

Критерии = Критерии должны быть любым точным словом или числом, которое мы должны посчитать.

Возвращаемое значение COUNTIF в Excel является положительным числом. Значение может быть нулевым или ненулевым.

Как пользоваться?

Использовать Excel Countif Not Blank очень просто. Здесь мы увидим, как использовать функцию COUNTIF, чтобы найти, сколько ячеек не являются пустыми в листе Excel. Давайте разберемся, как работает функция COUNTIF в Excel, на следующих примерах.

Вы можете скачать этот шаблон Excel COUNTIF Not Blank здесь — Шаблон Excel COUNTIF Not Blank

COUNTIF не пуст в Excel — пример № 1

У нас есть небольшие данные произвольного текста и чисел в столбце. И в этом столбце также есть пустая ячейка. Теперь для большого количества данных становится очень трудно сосчитать ячейку без пустых ячеек. Итак, мы применим функцию COUNTIF с комбинацией критериев, которая позволяет формуле пренебрегать пробелом и дает общее количество ячеек, которое имеет некоторое значение.

Как мы видим на скриншоте выше, в столбце A у нас есть данные, начиная с A2 до A7, и между ними в A6 находится пустая ячейка. Теперь, чтобы подсчитать общее количество ячеек, но не пустых, используйте COUNTIF. Для этого перейдите в любую ячейку, где вы хотите увидеть вывод, и нажмите fx (вкладка для вставки функций в Excel), как показано ниже.

Эта вкладка FX доступна чуть ниже строки меню . Как только мы щелкнем по нему, мы получим поле Вставить функцию, в котором будут все встроенные функции, предоставляемые Microsoft в ячейке. Найдите функцию COUNTIF, прокрутив ее вверх и вниз, а затем нажмите Ok, как показано на скриншоте ниже.

Как мы видим в приведенном выше поле «Вставка функции», есть вкладка « Выбор категории», в которой есть все категории для определенных функций. Отсюда мы можем перемещаться, чтобы выбрать все параметры, как показано на скриншоте выше, или мы можем выбрать Статистическую категорию, где мы найдем функцию COUNTIF, как показано на скриншоте ниже. А затем нажмите ОК.

Как только мы нажмем Ok, появится другое окно с аргументами функций, в котором нам нужно будет определить диапазон и критерии. Здесь мы выбрали диапазон от A2 до A7 и критерий как «» & », что означает, что ячейка, содержащая значение, большее и меньшее, чем любой пробел, должна учитываться. И нажмите ОК.

Критерии могут быть любыми, но для непустой ячейки нам нужно выбрать ячейку с любым значением, большим или меньшим, чем пустое. Для этого мы использовали «&»

Если критерии, которые мы определили, верны, то в окне «Аргументы функции» будут отображаться выходные данные в поле, как показано выше в нижней левой части окна. Как это показывает результат нашего определенного диапазона и критериев как 6.

Также на скриншоте ниже мы получили количество ячеек, которые не являются пустыми, как 6 . Поскольку ячейка A6 пуста, COUNTIF пренебрег этой пустой ячейкой и дал результат оставшегося числа ячеек, которое имеет некоторое значение (число или текст).

COUNTIF не пуст в Excel — пример № 2

Существует другой метод использования COUNTIF, не пустой, который подсчитывает все выбранные ячейки, но не пустые, путем непосредственного редактирования ячейки. Для этого перейдите в режим редактирования любой ячейки и нажмите знак равенства «=», что активирует все встроенные функции Excel. Там введите COUNTIF и выберите его, как показано на скриншоте ниже.

Нажатие «=» (знак равенства) в любой ячейке включает все функции, доступные в Excel. И даже если мы введем отдельные слова (скажем, «Количество»), как показано на скриншоте ниже, это даст все возможные функции, доступные для использования. Оттуда также мы можем выбрать функцию согласно нашему требованию.

Как вы можете видеть на скриншоте выше, функция COUNTIF имеет диапазон и критерии, которые должны быть назначены, что также было в предыдущем примере. Поэтому мы назначим тот же диапазон, что и для A2, и A7, а критерии — для «» & », как показано ниже.

И нажмите клавишу ввода. Мы получим количество ячеек, значение которого равно «6», но мы выбрали всего 7 ячеек, включая ячейку A6, которая не заполнена. Здесь также функции COUNTIF подсчитывают общее количество ячеек, которые не являются пустыми.

Но если мы введем неправильные критерии, мы можем получить сообщение об ошибке, которое объяснит возникшую проблему, как показано на скриншоте ниже. Здесь для тестирования мы удалили «» (кавычки) из критериев и получили ошибку.

Если мы не знаем, как устранить ошибку, то мы можем нажать кнопку « Справка», показанную на снимке экрана ниже, что приведет нас непосредственно к окну справки Microsoft Excel, которое поможет правильно настроить аргументы функции.

Замечания:

• «« (Перевернутая запятая) в функции Excel используется, когда есть какой-либо текст или необходимо захватить пустую ячейку. Вот текст и «» вместе используются для захвата ячейки, которая имеет какое-либо значение, но не является пустой.
• Используя « &» в формуле, мы можем добавить больше критериев в соответствии с нашим требованием.

Плюсы Excel COUNTIF не пустые в Excel

• Для больших наборов данных, где применение фильтра занимает так много времени, использование функции Excel Countif Not Blank полезно и экономит время, так как подсчет ячеек не пустой.
• Это дает мгновенный и точный результат.
• COUNTIF формула полностью автоматическая, она проста и удобна в использовании.
• Это очень полезно в бухгалтерской работе.

То, что нужно запомнить

• Всегда проверяйте данные, если это перенесенные выходные данные из другого источника. Есть вероятность того, что данные могут содержать пустые ячейки со скрытыми значениями. В этом случае отфильтруйте пустую ячейку и удалите значения ячейки, чтобы избежать неправильного вывода.
• Всегда показывайте лист или столбец, чтобы получить точный результат.

Рекомендуемые статьи

Это было руководство к COUNTIF, а не пустым в Excel. Здесь мы обсудим, как использовать функцию COUNTIF для подсчета не пустых ячеек в Excel, а также с практическими иллюстрациями и загружаемым шаблоном Excel. Вы также можете просмотреть наши другие предлагаемые статьи —

1. Как использовать функцию COUNTIF Excel?
2. Руководство по COUNTIF с несколькими критериями
3. Не равно функции в Excel
4. Как считать строки в Excel?

This is going to be a super simple post, here our aim is to find the number of cells that contain data, cells that are blank or empty should be excluded. The task is quite simple but the question becomes ‘how to do it?’. You know you want Excel to count a certain type of cells for you but if you find yourself wondering what to put in your sheets to get that count, you’re about to find out.

This tutorial will walk you through the usage of functions to count non-blank cells and at the end, we will also see a few functions to selectively count only the blank cells. So, without further ado, let’s jump right in.

Counting Cells That Are Not Blank

Here we are going to talk about three Excel functions that can help us to count non-blank cells from a range.

Using COUNTIF Function

The COUNTIF function counts the number of cells within a range that meet the given criteria. COUNTIF asks for the range from which it needs to count and the criteria according to which it needs to count. To count all the non-blank cells with COUNTIF we can make use of the following formula:

=COUNTIF(range,"<>")

Let’s try to understand this with an example. So, we have a dataset as shown below:

From this list of product discounts, we will aim to find how many products are discounted. In Excel’s terminology, this means – we are finding out how many non-blank cells there are in column D (the non-blank cells represent the discounts on products and the blank cells represent products with no discount).

We can easily accomplish this using the following COUNTIF formula:

=COUNTIF(D3:D14,"<>")

And our final result looks something like this.

Here, the formula has been fed with the range of column D (D3:D14). The criteria for searching column D is «<>» which is the indicator for non-blank cells («» for blank cells).

The COUNTIF function has counted 8 non-blank cells as the result. This tells us that in our dataset, there are 8 products on discount.

The COUNTIF function can be used for only one condition. For multiple conditions (e.g., non-blank cells and discount more than 20%), we can use the COUNTIFS function.

The next function we will use to count if not blank cells are present in a range is the COUNTA function.

Using COUNTA Function

By its nature, the COUNTA function counts the cells in a range that are not empty. It is a single argument function (in its simplest form) requiring just the range from which to count non-blank cells.

We will use it in our last example and simply add our range D3:D14 to the COUNTA function in this way:

=COUNTA(D3:D14)

We have the same results as the COUNTIF function i.e., 8 non-blank cells, with fewer arguments.

For the sole purpose of counting non-blank cells, the COUNTA function offers an easy, straightforward solution.

However, the COUNTA and COUNTIF functions will also count cells with space characters and formulas that return an empty string. This means that the functions will count cells that look blank but are not essentially blank.

Why is that a problem?

Technically, a space character or a formula that returns an empty string is very different from a blank cell. Although they look similar but technically they are two different things.

But since our purpose here is to count non-blank cells, so we might want the cells that appear blank to be counted as blank cells (technically, even though they are not blank). To accomplish this instead of using the COUNTIF or COUNTA functions it is better to use a SUMPRODUCT function. And this is what we are going to see in the next section.

Tip: If you are adamant about using the COUNTIF or COUNTA function for counting non-blank cells, another way around it would be to filter the data and get rid of the cells with hidden values. This will refine the results without the inclusion of faux blank cells. For now, we will move onto the SUMPRODUCT function.

Using SUMPRODUCT Function

The SUMPRODUCT returns the sum of the products of the supplied ranges or arrays. To count non-blank cells using SUMPRODUCT function we can use the below formula:

=SUMPRODUCT(--(C2:C13<>""))

Let’s try to understand the formula first and then we can compare it with the COUNTIF and COUNTA functions.

In the above formula, first of all, we are checking if the values in the range C2:C13 are equal to an empty string (nothing). This returns an array of boolean values like this –

=SUMPRODUCT(--({TRUE, TRUE, TRUE, FALSE, TRUE, TRUE, TRUE, TRUE, FALSE, TRUE, TRUE, TRUE}))

Now, since the SUMPRODUCT function cannot sum boolean values we are converting them to 0’s and 1’s by using the double-negatives. So, the formula gets further simplified to something like this –

=SUMPRODUCT({1, 1, 1, 0, 1, 1, 1, 1, 0, 1, 1, 1})

The SUMPRODUCT  function adds all these 1’s and 0’s and returns the final result.

An important thing worth noting here is that the above formula does not treat space character as an empty string (nothing) so it will still be counted as a non-blank cell. To count them as blanks we can make use of the TRIM function and the final formula would look like this –

=SUMPRODUCT(--(TRIM(C2:C13)<>""))

Pro Tip: Instead of using the double negatives to convert boolean values to 1’s and 0’s we can also either add 0 to them or multiply them by 1 and our final result would still be the same.

Now, Let’s have the COUNTIF, COUNTA, and SUMPRODUCT functions side by side and analyze them:

What we can see from the serial numbering, is that there are 12 rows in our dataset. C5 is a blank cell that is correctly interpreted as blank cells by COUNTIF and COUNTA. It appears that there are 2 more blank cells (C8 containing a space character and C10 containing a formula that returns an empty string i.e., =»») in the range which means that there are 9 non-blank cells.

While the COUNTIF and COUNTA functions have treated C5 as a blank cell but they treat the other two C8 and C10 as non-blank cells and thus return 11 as the count.

On the other hand, the SUMPRODUCT based formula correctly identifies all such cells and hence returns 9 as the count of non-blank cells.

Recommended Reading: Counting Unique Values In Excel

Counting Blank Cells

Now is the turn for counting blank cells. We have ahead 2 very simple ways of counting empty cells with help of the COUNTBLANK and the COUNTIF function.

Using COUNTBLANK Function

The COUNTBLANK function, pretty self-explanatory, counts the number of empty/blank cells in a specified range. We will use the function plainly to get our results:

=COUNTBLANK(D3:D14)

We have inserted the range D3:D14 in the formula to see how many blank cells there are in column D which will tell us the number of products with no discount. The outcome of the COUNTBLANK function is «4» blank cells.

Using COUNTIF Function

As explained above, the COUNTIF function can be used for counting both, blank and non-blank cells. Now we will see how to use COUNTIF for counting blank cells.

To count blank cells the COUNTIF function can be used as:

=COUNTIF(D3:D14,"")

In the formula, which is made up of the range and criteria, we have swapped the criteria for counting non-blank cells (i.e., «<>») with the criteria for counting blank cells (i.e., «»). With the range specified as D3:D14, the COUNTIF function returns «4» blank cells as the result, indicating 4 undiscounted products.

At the end of this tutorial, we hope you won’t feel blank when trying to count if not blank and blank cells. We’re following up with more how-to’s as you read!

Excel tables with their functions come in handy to count cells with data, horizontally and vertically. COUNTIF is the common function for counting cells with one and several conditions. So let’s look into this further to understand all the details and distinctions.

Meaning of COUNTIF Excel

COUNTIF in Excel is a statistical function that counts cells with those data that users indicate. It takes into account one condition. 

• You can find items recorded even for months under a specific name. 
• You may count the number of cells that hold a common letter or sign. 
• You can use the Excel COUNTIF not blank to learn the empty cells quantity.
• You specify numerosity more or less than a mentioned value.

The COUNTIF formula in Excel consists of range (which goes first) and criteria (indicates the corresponding position). 

=COUNTIF (range, criterion) 

• range is the mandatory argument, which includes cells needed to find. 
• criterion includes expression, word, figures, letter, or other conditions that you need to discover.

How to use COUNTIF in Excel?

The function works with only one condition. Nevertheless, a person may single out many different data in turn. The computation is carried out with numbers, letters, words, phrases and dates. You can only write a cell reference or an entire condition. Sometimes, wildcards and symbols assist to determine more accurate values.

How COUNTIF works in Excel?

The function calculates the number of cells with indicated context, i.e., with the data that the user needs to count. For instance, you have a chart with diversified furniture bought over time. You may count what furniture (sofa, bed, wardrobe, chair, table, etc.) people buy. The COUNTIF will compute the cells in which the mentioned furniture is located. You write down the formula according to the condition you ought to detect. For example, let’s count the number of cells containing the word ‘chair‘:

=COUNTIF(A1:A21,"Chair")

Does COUNTIF function in Excel work for several criteria?

The COUNTIF doesn’t support frequentative conditions. Thus, you won’t find the number of chairs or nightstands purchased only in January or only on February 3. You have to use COUNTIFS for such cases.

However, you may write COUNTIF + COUNTIF. Such a COUNTIF Excel multiple criteria function makes the outcome more complete. Let’s determine the number of purchased chairs and sofas. Write the following:

=COUNTIF(A2:A21,"Chair")+COUNTIF(A2:A21,"Sofa").

Samples of advanced COUNTIFS function in Excel 

COUNTIF and COUNTIFS are various functions. They differ in the computation of cells with one criterion or more criteria. The first identifies cells under one condition, and the second takes into account several specific criteria. Let’s count the number of chairs bought by Jeremy. We need to use COUNTIFS for such appointments. Write it as follows: 

=COUNTIFS(A2:A13,"Chair",B2:B13,"Jeremy")

Using COUNTIF in Excel when data is on other sources

People usually store data on certain apps, such as Harvest, Google Drive, Jira, Pipedrive, etc. When you need to calculate this data in Excel, you can import it from the app. The Coupler.io tool is designed exactly for this. It will help transfer all the necessary information to BigQuery, Google Sheets, or Excel from other sources. In addition, you can automate updates to make your work easier in the future. 

Sign up to Coupler.io and complete two steps to set up your Excel integration: source and destination. If you want to schedule automatic data refresh, you’ll need to configure one more step – schedule. Here is what the integration may look like:

Practical skills based on a COUNTIF Excel example

Examine a few samples of use in more detail. Take, for instance, the furniture in the store. Imagine the owner created an Excel table regarding sales. They write down the furniture in one column there. The other column contains the dates when the goods were sold. Finally, the third column contains the quantity of each product sold. So, let’s define some samples with several formulas, including dates, words and figures.

Excel COUNTIF: Cells are equal or not equal

Imagine that people have bought every subject several times. Let’s take, for example, 7 times. In our formula, we specify the range where to look and the figure 7. 

=COUNTIF(B1:B20,7)

Let’s still find the purchased furniture that isn’t equal to 5.

=COUNTIF(B1:B20,"<>5")

Excel COUNTIF: cells contain words

Let’s try to work with words using the same formula. Imagine that we need to know how many tables people bought. Let’s write the following formula. 

=COUNTIF(A2:A21,"Table")

As a result, people bought 2 tables. You can replace the word with a cell reference

=COUNTIF(A2:A21,E2)

COUNTIF use in Excel – meaning of wildcards

We can use COUNTIF not only with words but also with special wildcards (* and ?) to generalize the condition. 

• ? = One character.
• * = Sequence. 

Also, you can write ~ to find symbols * or ?.

Let’s look at a simple formula 

=COUNTIF(A1:A7,"Table")

The question mark symbol ? adds one additional character. In our dataset, there are the words ‘Table‘ and ‘Tables‘ with the last letter ‘s‘. So, Table? in the formula will look for the latter option:

=COUNTIF(A1:A7,"Table?")

The asterisk symbol * adds a sequence of characters or even spaces. For instance, the following formula counts all words that start with Tab including ‘Table’ and ‘Tables’:

=COUNTIF(A1:A7,"Tab*")

Excel COUNTIF: сells are more than or less than

Let’s find out some values using operators: >, <, <>, =. We write it next to the criterion in quotation marks. Thanks to them, we can find cells with numbers that are more or less, equal, or not equal to some value. For example, let’s count the amount of furniture that people bought more than 3 times:

=COUNTIF(B1:B20,">3")

Change the logical operator to count the amount of furniture that people bought less than 3 times:

=COUNTIF(B1:B20,"<3")

Excel COUNTIF: count cells including date

Another feature is working with dates. So, let’s imagine that the biggest purchases fall on the date of January 1. We need to know the cells’ numerosity with this data.

=COUNTIF(B2:B21,"01/01/2021")

What common problems should you avoid? 

Often, people face issues using the function. We seem to be doing everything right, but the Excel function COUNTIF shows the error. Look at a few situations why it occurs. For instance, you wrote the formula 

=COUNTIF(A2:A13,Chair)

The function has shown zero results although this is not correct. So taking a closer look, the word ‘Chair‘ should be in quotation marks. 

=COUNTIF(A2:A13,"Chair")

In another example of incorrect syntax, the formula returned #NAME?. In this case, there is a space between the range (A1:A7) and the criterion, which also has not quotation marks (Table).

The correct formula should look like this

=COUNTIF(A1:A7,"Table")

Best practices in using the COUNTIF function

It is easy to make mistakes both out of ignorance and inattention. However, by applying the following tips you can avoid the common mistakes.

• Write the wildcards (? and *) to generalize the condition.
• The condition can only have less than 255 characters. You will see an error exceeding this limit. To exceed the limit, you can use CONCATENATE or ampersand (&).
• The function returns the same value if the words are written in uppercase or lowercase letters. It doesn’t take into account case strings. You should rename the word if it has a different meaning.
• Pay attention to the spelling of words and letters. The function does not differentiate case strings and doesn’t work with misspellings.

Adherence to all principles and rules and writing correct syntax will facilitate calculations without problems. The main point is to write the formula and condition correctly.

• 

  Technical Content Writer on Coupler.io who loves working with data, writing about it, and even producing videos about it. I’ve worked at startups and product companies, writing content for technical audiences of all sorts. You’ll often see me cycling🚴🏼‍♂️, backpacking around the world🌎, and playing heavy board games.

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