How to count on a formula in excel

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The COUNT function counts the number of cells that contain numbers, and counts numbers within the list of arguments. Use the COUNT function to get the number of entries in a number field that is in a range or array of numbers. For example, you can enter the following formula to count the numbers in the range A1:A20: =COUNT(A1:A20). In this example, if five of the cells in the range contain numbers, the result is 5.

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Syntax

COUNT(value1, [value2], …)

The COUNT function syntax has the following arguments:

  • value1    Required. The first item, cell reference, or range within which you want to count numbers.

  • value2, …    Optional. Up to 255 additional items, cell references, or ranges within which you want to count numbers.

Note: The arguments can contain or refer to a variety of different types of data, but only numbers are counted.

Remarks

  • Arguments that are numbers, dates, or a text representation of numbers (for example, a number enclosed in quotation marks, such as «1») are counted.

  • Logical values and text representations of numbers that you type directly into the list of arguments are counted.

  • Arguments that are error values or text that cannot be translated into numbers are not counted.

  • If an argument is an array or reference, only numbers in that array or reference are counted. Empty cells, logical values, text, or error values in the array or reference are not counted.

  • If you want to count logical values, text, or error values, use the COUNTA function.

  • If you want to count only numbers that meet certain criteria, use the COUNTIF function or the COUNTIFS function.

Example

Copy the example data in the following table, and paste it in cell A1 of a new Excel worksheet. For formulas to show results, select them, press F2, and then press Enter. If you need to, you can adjust the column widths to see all the data.

Data

12/8/08

19

22.24

TRUE

#DIV/0!

Formula

Description

Result

=COUNT(A2:A7)

Counts the number of cells that contain numbers in cells A2 through A7.

3

=COUNT(A5:A7)

Counts the number of cells that contain numbers in cells A5 through A7.

2

=COUNT(A2:A7,2)

Counts the number of cells that contain numbers in cells A2 through A7, and the value 2

4

Need more help?

What Is COUNT In Excel?

The COUNT function in Excel counts the number of cells containing numerical values within the given range. It always returns an integer value.

The COUNT in Excel is an inbuilt statistical function, so we can insert the formula from the “Function Library” or enter it directly in the worksheet.

For example, to count a range of cells that contain a date before April 1, 2021, the formula used is “=COUNT(“Cell Range”, “<”&DATE (2021,4,1))”. The date is entered by using the DATE functionThe date function in excel is a date and time function representing the number provided as arguments in a date and time code. The result displayed is in date format, but the arguments are supplied as integers.read more.

Table of contents
  • What Is COUNT In Excel?
    • Syntax Of COUNT Excel Formula
    • How To Use COUNT Function In Excel?
    • Examples
    • The Characteristics Of The COUNT Function
    • Important Things To Note
    • Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
    • COUNT Function In Excel Video
    • Download Template
    • Recommended Articles
  • In a given dataset, the COUNT function in Excel returns the count of the numeric values.
  • It counts only the numbers and not the logical values, empty cells, text, or error values when the argument seems to be an array or reference.
  • The usage of the COUNT and VBA (VBA Excel COUNT) functions are the same in Excel.
  • The COUNTA function is a further extension of the COUNT function. It counts logical values, text, or error values. The  COUNTIF function (another extension of the COUNT function) counts the numbers that meet a specified criterion.

Syntax Of COUNT Excel Formula

The syntax of the COUNT Excel formula is,

COUNT Formula

The arguments of the COUNT Excel formula are,

  • value1, [value2], …, [value n]: It is a mandatory argument. It can range up to 255 values. The value can be a cell referenceCell reference in excel is referring the other cells to a cell to use its values or properties. For instance, if we have data in cell A2 and want to use that in cell A1, use =A2 in cell A1, and this will copy the A2 value in A1.read more or a range of values. It is a collection of worksheet cells containing a variety of data, out of which only the cells containing numbers are counted.

How To Use COUNT Function In Excel?

We can use the COUNT Excel function in 2 ways, namely:

  1. Access from the Excel ribbon.
  2. Enter in the worksheet manually.

Method #1 – Access from the Excel ribbon

Choose an empty cell for the result → select the “Formulas” tab → go to the “Function Library” group → click the “More Functions” option drop-down → click the “Statistical” option right arrow → select the “COUNT” function, as shown below.

COUNT Function in Excel - Access from the excel ribbon

The “Function Arguments” windowappears. Enter the arguments in the “Value1”, “Value2”, etc. fields, and click “OK”, as shown below.

COUNT Function in Excel - Function arguments window

Method #2 – Enter in the worksheet manually

  1. Select an empty cell for the output.
  2. Type =COUNT( in the selected cell. [Alternatively, type =C or =COU and double-click the COUNT function from the list of suggestions shown by Excel.
  3. Enter the argument as cell value or cell reference and close the brackets.
  4. Press the “Enter” key.

Basic Example – Count Numbers in the Given Range

Let us look at an example to apply the COUNT function to Count Numbers in the Given Range. (shown in the table below).

Select cell B10, enter the formula =COUNT(B3:B8), and press “Enter”.

COUNT Example 1

The output is shown above. The range B3:B8 contains only three numeric values. Hence, the COUNT function returns 3.

Examples

We will consider some scenarios using COUNT Function in Excel examples. Each example covers a different case, implemented using the COUNT function.

Example #1 – Count Non-empty Cells

Let us apply the COUNTA functionThe COUNTA function is an inbuilt statistical excel function that counts the number of non-blank cells (not empty) in a cell range or the cell reference. For example, cells A1 and A3 contain values but, cell A2 is empty. The formula “=COUNTA(A1,A2,A3)” returns 2.
read more
to the range of cells A1:A5 provided in the below table to find the count of the number of cells that are not empty.

Select cell B1, enter the formula =COUNTA(A1:A5), and press “Enter”.

The output is shown above. The COUNTA function counts the number of cells from A1 through A5 that contain some data. It returns the value as 4, as cells A1, A2, A3, and A4 are not empty, and only cell A5 is empty. 

Example #2 – Count the Number of Valid Dates

Let us apply the COUNT function to count the number of valid dates to the range of cells C3:C8 (shown in the table below).

Select cell C10, enter the formula =COUNT(C3:C8), and press “Enter”.

COUNT Example 3

The output is shown above. The range contains dates in different formats. Out of this, only two dates are valid. Hence, the formula returns 2.

Example #3 – Multiple Parameters

Let us apply the COUNT formula to the range of excel cells C3:C7 (provided in the table below) along with another parameter that is hard-coded with a value of 5.

Select cell C11, enter the formula =COUNTA(C3:C7,5), and press “Enter”.

COUNT Example 4

The output is shown above. The number of cells (C3 through C7) with valid numeric values or dates is 2, plus 1 for the number 5. Hence the COUNT formula returns the result as 3 (cells C5, C6, and the number 5). Note that the date in cell C7 is invalid, and so is not taken into account in the given results.

Example #4 – Invalid Numbers

Let us apply the COUNT formula to the range of values B6:B8 (shown in the table below) containing invalid numbers. 

Select cell B12, enter the formula =COUNTA(B6:B8), and press “Enter”.

COUNT Function Example 5

The output is shown above. The range does not have any valid number. Hence, the result returned by the formula is 0, indicated in cell B12.

Example #5 – Empty Range

Let us apply the COUNT function to the range of values in cells D3:D5, which is an empty range.

Select cell D10, enter the formula =COUNTA(D3:D5), and press “Enter”.

COUNT Function Example 6

The output is shown above. The given range does not have any numbers, and it is empty. Hence, the result returned by the formula is 0, indicated in cell D10.

The Characteristics Of The COUNT Function

The features of the COUNT Excel function are listed as follows:

  1. It counts the list of parameters containing the logical values and text representations.
  2. It does not count the error values or text which cannot be converted into numbers.
  3. It counts only the numbers and not the logical values, empty cells, text, or error values when the argument seems to be an array or reference.
  4. A further extension to the COUNT function is the COUNTA function. It counts logical values, text, or error values.
  5. Another extension of the COUNT function is the COUNTIF function, which counts the numbers that meet a specified criterion.

Important Things To Note

  • Since the COUNT function has other related functions such as COUNTA, COUNTIF, COUNTBLANK, etc., we must ensure we enter the right function name to avoid getting a “#NAME?” error.
  • In a selected cell range, the function ignores the blank cells, non-numeric cells, etc.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

1. How to use the Excel COUNT function?

The COUNT function provides the count of cells containing numbers within the given range of cells. It also counts numeric values within the list of arguments.
The formula of the COUNT in excel is =COUNT(value 1, [value 2],……, and so on).

2. What is the COUNTIF formula?

The COUNTIF function counts cells in a range that meets a single criterion. It counts cells that contain dates, numbers, and text.
The COUNTIF formula in excel is =COUNTIF(range, condition)
Here, the range is a series of cells to count.

3. What is the difference between the COUNT and COUNTA functions in Excel?

The COUNT function is generally used to count a range of cells containing numbers or dates. It excludes blank cells. And the COUNTA function, whichstands for count all, will count the numbers, dates, text, or a range containing a mixture of all these items. It does not count blank cells.

COUNT Function In Excel Video

Download Template

This article must help understand the COUNT function in Excel with its formulas and examples. You can download the template here to use it instantly.

You can download this COUNT Formula Excel Template here – COUNT Formula Excel Template

Recommended Articles

This is a guide to the COUNT Function in Excel. Here, we count number of cells with numeric values, COUNTA, COUNTIF, examples & a downloadable template. You may also look at the below useful functions in Excel –

  • Example of COUNTIF with Multiple Criteria
  • INT Function in Excel (Integer)INT or integer function in excel returns the nearest integer of a given number and is used when we have many data sets and each data in a different format.read more
  • AVERAGE Function in Excel

For getting the count of numbers, dates, text, empty or non-blank cells,  you may use various built-in functions in Excel.

Depending on the requirement, you may choose which one to use; for example, if you require the count of cells that contain numbers only, you may use the Excel COUNT function.

To get the count of all cells with numbers, text, dates etc except the blank cells, use the COUNTA function.

Similarly, for returning the count of cells based on certain criteria e.g. count of cells that contain “A” can be done by COUNTIF function and for multiple criteria use the COUNTIFS function. For example, return the count of cells that are between two dates.

To get the count of blank or empty cells, use the COUNTBLANK function.

In the following section, I will show you Count Formulas in Excel with data in spreadsheets. You may copy any formula in your sheet to see how it works.

  • 1.
    Get the count of numeric cells by COUNT function

  • 2.
    What if cells also contain dates?

  • 3.
    Using multiple ranges in COUNT function

  • 4.
    Using Excel COUNTIF function for conditional counting

  • 5.
    Getting the count of matched text

  • 6.
    Using the ‘*’ wildcard in COUNTIF function

  • 7.
    Using “>=” in COUNTIF for number count

  • 8.
    Using “<” operator in COUNTIF function

  • 9.
    An example of Not equal to operator “<>”

  • 10.
    Getting count of multiple ranges by COUNTIF

  • 11.
    The Example of using COUNTIF with dates

  • 12.
    An example of COUNTA function

  • 13.
    How to get the count of empty cells?

  • 14.
    How to use COUNTIFS function

  • 15.
    The example of using Excel COUNTIFS function

  • 16.
    Using three conditions in COUNTIFS

Get the count of numeric cells by COUNT function

Let us start with a simple example of counting the number of cells that contain numbers only. For that, I have filled cells from A2 to A10 by numbers, text, and blank cells. See what we get by COUNT function:

The COUNT formula:

=COUNT(A2:A10)

Excel COUNT function

You can see, the COUNT function only returned the count for cells containing numbers. The blank and text cells are ignored while numbers with currency format are also included.

What if cells also contain dates?

The COUNT function also reruns the cells that contain dates. To demonstrate that, I extended the above range to B10 cell and added two numbers and two dates in B cells. So, the COUNT formula is:

=COUNT(A2:B10)

See the sheet figure with formula and result:

Excel COUNT date

Using multiple ranges in COUNT function

Two things are further used in this formula. The first is using multiple ranges i.e. A2:A10 and C4:C8. The second thing tested whether COUNT function returns the text with number e.g. “6test”. See the formula and output:

=COUNT(A2:A10,C4:C10)

COUNT multi ranges

You saw, the COUNT did not return “2test” occurrence.

You may provide up to 255 ranges, cell references or items that you want to get the count.

Using Excel COUNTIF function for conditional counting

If you require getting the count of the number of cells based on single criteria then use the COUNTIF function. If you separate two words: “COUNT” “IF”, it makes the purpose clear.

For example, COUNT the cells from A2:D1000 IF that contains the word “Microsoft”. Similarly, return the number of cells which date is less than or equal to 10/10/2010 and so on.

General Syntax of COUNTIF:

=COUNTIF(Where to search, What to search)

You may provide a range of cells, array, names range etc as the first argument.

In “What to search” argument, you will specify e.g.

  • “London”
  • A cell reference like A10
  • “>1” count the cells which value is greater than 1
  • “<=10” less than or equal to 10

The next section shows a few examples of using the Excel COUNTIF function.

Getting the count of matched text

In this example, we will get the count of “Apple” in our example sheet. The column A cells contain the Fruits and Vegetable names. In the COUNTIF function, I specified the Apple as follows:

The result:

Excel COUNTIF text

You can see the text Apple occurred three times in the given range.

Using the ‘*’ wildcard in COUNTIF function

You may also use the wildcards (* and ?) in the COUNTIF function. The ‘*’ is used for any sequence of characters while ‘?’ mark for the single character.

In the following example, I used the “to*” in the COUNTIF for the same sheet as used in above example and see the formula and result:

The COUNTIF formula:

The result:

Excel COUNTIF wildcard

You saw the occurrences of Tomato (twice) and Potato (once) is returned as 3.

Using “>=” in COUNTIF for number count

For this example, I will use the single criteria for counting the cells containing the number of sales greater than or equal to 100 in the COUNTIF function.

For this example, the Excel sheet contains month names in B cells and number of sales in C cells. Following COUNTIF formula is used:

The resultant sheet:

COUNTIF greater equal

If you count the number of sales greater than or equal to 100, it is 6 that COUNTIF returned.

Using “<” operator in COUNTIF function

Now, we will get the count of Number of Sales less than 100 by using COUNTIF function. The following formula is used:

COUNTIF less than

The count is again 6.

An example of Not equal to operator “<>”

For this example, I used the Not Equal to operator which is “<>”. The criterion set in the COUNTIF is to return the number of sales not equal to 150 i.e.

Result:

COUNTIF not equal

If you look at the data in the Excel sheet, it contains 150 twice. So, the COUNTIF omitted these and returned 10 counts.

Getting count of multiple ranges by COUNTIF

In this example, we will get the count of two different ranges by using COUNTIF function twice and adding the returned result.

For that, I have added another column in above sheet i.e. Amount. By using the COUNTIF function, we will get the count of (number of sales more than 100) + (Sale amount greater than or equal to $15000). See how this is translated into COUNTIF:

=COUNTIF(C2:C13,«>100»)+COUNTIF(D2:D13,«>=15000»)

The returned result:

COUNTIF multiple

If you count the C cells (C2:C13) then the count of cells with more than 100 sales is 6. Add this to the count of D2:D15 cells with the amount greater or equal to 15000 then it is 7. The sum of both returned values is 13.

Note: Please do not mix it with using multiple conditions. The COUNTIF returned results separately and its result is summed. If we used minus operator then result would have been -1 i.e.

=COUNTIF(C2:C13,«>100») COUNTIF(D2:D13,«>=15000»)

You may use more than two COUNTIF formulas as well. The function of using multiple conditions/criteria is COUNTIFS that is coming up in next sections.

The Example of using COUNTIF with dates

Just like the numbers, you may also write a criterion for date columns to get the count. For example, get the count of employees who joined after 3rd Jan 2012.

To demonstrate the usage of dates in COUNTIF function, I am using an Excel sheet containing fictitious records of employee names and their joining date. A named range is created which is referred to the COUNTIF function.

By using COUNTIF function, we will get the total count of employees, number of employees joined after 2010, the number of employees joined before 2007 and employees joined between 2008 to 2012. First, have a look at the resultant sheet which is followed by COUNTIF formulas:

COUNTIF dates

The formula to get the total number of employees:

=COUNT(empData)

Where empData is the range name containing cells A3 to B7.

The COUNTIF formula for getting the number of employees joined after 2009:

=COUNTIF(empData, «>» & «2009-12-31»)

Joined on or before 2007:

=COUNTIF(empData, «<=» & «2007-12-31»)

Joined between 2008 to 2012 formula:

=COUNTIFS(empData,«>=»&«2007-01-01»,empData,«<=»&«2012-12-31»)

The last formula used COUNTIFS as we have two conditions to check. I will explain this in the COUNTIFS section.

You may learn more about the COUNTIF function in its tutorial: Using COUNTIF function.

An example of COUNTA function

If you require counting cells containing any type of data including numbers, text, empty string e.g. “”, dates, cells with error codes etc. then use the COUNTA function.

The COUNTA function will only omit the empty cells. See the following example, where I have used different types of values in Excel sheet and used COUNTA function for getting the count:

The COUNTA formula:

=COUNTA(B2:B10)

Excel COUNTA

You can see, the resultant sheet displayed count as 7 as two cells in the given range are empty.

How to get the count of empty cells?

If you require the count of empty cells only then use the COUNTBLANK function. Have a look at the same Excel sheet and data as used for COUNTA function for demonstrating the COUNTBLANK function.

The Excel COUNTBLANK formula:

=COUNTBLANK(B2:B10)

Excel COUNTBLANK

The returned count is 2 as you can see the given range contains two blank cells.

How to use COUNTIFS function

As mentioned earlier, if you have multiple criteria to check for getting the count in a range, array etc. you may use the COUNTIFS function.

For example, return the count of those employees who joined after 10/20/2012 and their salary is $5000 or above. We have seen, the COUNTIF enables using single criterion only whereas COUNTIFS allows us getting the count based on above two criteria.

The example of using Excel COUNTIFS function

For the example of COUNTIFS function, I am using the same Excel sheet as used in an above example that contains Months, Number of Sales and Amount columns.

The requirement is to count those rows which Number of Sales is greater than or equal to 110 and amount >= $15000. The COUNTIFS formula is:

=COUNTIFS(C2:C13,«>=110»,D2:D13,«>=15000»)

The result:

Excel COUNTIFS

You can see, the highlighted rows met both criteria. If you look at the first row, the amount is $15000 that is true, however, the Number of sales is 105 which is False; so COUNTIFS did not include this row.

Using three conditions in COUNTIFS

You may use up to 127 range/criteria pairs in the COUNTIFS function. In this example, I am using three conditions in the COUNTIFS. For that, extending the above formula and another criterion is added to return the count of those rows that start with month “J”. While the number of sales is set as greater than 100.

The COUNTIFS formula:

=COUNTIFS(B2:B13,«J*»,C2:C13,«>100»,D2:D13,«>=15000»)

The result:

Excel COUNTIFS three

You see, I used ‘*’ wildcard as the first criteria i.e. B2:B13,”J*”. If you go through the table, only two highlighted rows met all the criteria given in COUNTIFS function.

Date yes Add (Subtract) Days to a Date Concatenate Dates Convert Date to Number Convert Date to Text Month Name to Number Create Date Range from Dates Day Number of Year Month Name from Date First Day of Month Add (Subtract) Weeks to a Date If Functions with Dates Max Date Number of Days Between Dates Number of Days in a Month Number of Weeks Between Dates Number of Years Between Dates Split Date & Time into Separate Cells Countdown Remaining Days Insert Dates Random Date Generator Using Dynamic Ranges — Year to Date Values Add (Subtract) Years to a Date Date Formula Examples Extract Day from Date Get Day Name from Date Count Days Left in Month / Year Count Workdays Left in Month / Year Get Last Day of Month Last Business Day of Month / Year Number of Work / Business Days in Month Weekday Abbreviations Auto Populate Dates Number of Months Between Dates Quarter from a Date Years of Service Change Date Format Compare Dates Time yes Add (Subtract) Hours to Time Add (Subtract) Minutes to Time Add (Subtract) Seconds to Time Add Up time (Total Time) Time Differences Change Time Format Convert Minutes to Hours Convert Time to Decimal Convert Time to Hours Convert Time to Minutes Convert Time to Seconds Military Time Round Time to Nearest 15 Minutes Overtime Calculator Number of Hours Between Times Convert Seconds to Minutes, Hours, or Time Count Hours Worked Time Differences Time Format — Show Minutes Seconds Text yes Add Commas to Cells Get First Word from Text Capitalize First Letter Clean & Format Phone #s Remove Extra Trailing / Leading Spaces Add Spaces to Cell Assign Number Value to Text Combine Cells with Comma Combine First and Last Names Convert Text String to Date Convert Text to Number Extract Text From Cell Get Last Word Remove Unwated Characters Extract Text Before or After Character How to Split Text String by Space, Comma, & More Remove Special Characters Remove First Characters from Left Substitute Multiple Values Switch First & Last Names w/ Commas Remove Specific Text from a Cell Extract Text Between Characters (Ex. Parenthesis) Add Leading Zeros to a Number Remove Line Breaks from Text Remove all Numbers from Text Reverse Text Remove Non-Numeric Characters Remove Last Character(s) From Right Separate First and Last Names Separate Text & Numbers Round yes Round Formulas Round Price to Nearest Dollar or Cent Round to Nearest 10, 100, or 1000 Round to Nearest 5 or .5 Round Percentages Round to Significant Figures Count yes Count Blank and Non-blank Cells Count Cells Between Two Numbers Count Cells not Equal to Count if Cells are in Range Count Times Word Appears in Cell Count Words in Cell Count Specific Characters in Column Count Total Number of Characters in Column Count Cells that Equal one of two Results Count Cells that do not Contain Count Cells that Contain Specific Text Count Unique Values in Range Countif — Multiple Criteria Count Total Number of Cells in Range Count Cells with Any Text Count Total Cells in a Table Lookup yes Two Dimensional VLOOKUP VLOOKUP Simple Example Vlookup — Multiple Matches Case Sensitive Lookup Case Sensitive VLOOKUP Sum if — VLOOKUP Case Sensitive Lookup Case Sensitive VLOOKUP Find Duplicates w/ VLOOKUP or MATCH INDEX MATCH MATCH Lookup — Return Cell Address (Not Value) Lookup Last Value in Column or Row Reverse VLOOKUP (Right to Left) Risk Score Bucket with VLOOKUP Sum with a VLOOKUP Function VLOOKUP & INDIRECT VLOOKUP Concatenate VLOOKUP Contains (Partial Match) 17 Reasons Why Your XLOOKUP is Not Working Double (Nested) XLOOKUP — Dynamic Columns IFERROR (& IFNA) XLOOKUP Lookup Min / Max Value Nested VLOOKUP Top 11 Alternatives to VLOOKUP (Updated 2022!) VLOOKUP – Dynamic Column Reference VLOOKUP – Fix #N/A Error VLOOKUP – Multiple Sheets at Once VLOOKUP & HLOOKUP Combined VLOOKUP & MATCH Combined VLOOKUP Between Worksheets or Spreadsheets VLOOKUP Duplicate Values VLOOKUP Letter Grades VLOOKUP Return Multiple Columns VLOOKUP Returns 0? Return Blank Instead VLOOKUP w/o #N/A Error XLOOKUP Multiple Sheets at Once XLOOKUP Between Worksheets or Spreadsheets XLOOKUP by Date XLOOKUP Duplicate Values XLOOKUP Multiple Criteria XLOOKUP Return Multiple Columns XLOOKUP Returns 0? Return Blank Instead XLOOKUP Text XLOOKUP with IF XLOOKUP With If Statement Misc. yes Sort Multiple Columns Use Cell Value in Formula Percentage Change Between Numbers Percentage Breakdown Rank Values Add Spaces to Cell CAGR Formula Average Time Decimal Part of Number Integer Part of a Number Compare Items in a List Dealing with NA() Errors Get Worksheet Name Wildcard Characters Hyperlink to Current Folder Compound Interest Formula Percentage Increase Create Random Groups Sort with the Small and Large Functions Non-volatile Function Alternatives Decrease a Number by a Percentage Calculate Percent Variance Profit Margin Calculator Convert Column Number to Letter Get Full Address of Named Range Insert File Name Insert Path Latitute / Longitude Functions Replace Negative Values Reverse List Range Convert State Name to Abbreviation Create Dynamic Hyperlinks Custom Sort List with Formula Data Validation — Custom Formulas Dynamic Sheet Reference (INDIRECT) Reference Cell in Another Sheet or Workbook Get Cell Value by Address Get Worksheet Name Increment Cell Reference List Sheet Names List Skipped Numbers in Sequence Return Address of Max Value in Range Search by Keywords Select Every Other (or Every nth) Row Basics yes Cell Reference Basics — A1, R1C1, 3d, etc. Add Up (Sum) Entire Column or Row Into to Dynamic Array Formulas Conversions yes Convert Time Zones Convert Celsius to Fahrenheit Convert Pounds to Kilograms Convert Time to Unix Time Convert Feet to Meters Convert Centimeters to Inches Convert Kilometers to Miles Convert Inches to Feet Convert Date to Julian Format Convert Column Letter to Number Tests yes Test if a Range Contains any Text Test if any Cell in Range is Number Test if a Cell Contains a Specific Value Test if Cell Contains Any Number Test if Cell Contains Specific Number Test if Cell is Number or Text If yes Percentile If Subtotal If Sumproduct If Large If and Small If Median If Concatentate If Max If Rank If TEXTJOIN If Sum yes Sum if — Begins With / Ends With Sum if — Month or Year to Date Sum if — By Year Sum if — Blank / Non-Blank Sum if — Horizontal Sum Count / Sum If — Cell Color INDIRECT Sum Sum If — Across Multiple Sheets Sum If — By Month Sum If — Cells Not Equal To Sum If — Not Blank Sum if — Between Values Sum If — Week Number Sum Text Sum if — By Category or Group Sum if — Cell Contains Specific Text (Wildcards) Sum if — Date Rnage Sum if — Dates Equal Sum if — Day of Week Sum if — Greater Than Sum if — Less Than Average yes Average Non-Zero Values Average If — Not Blank Average — Ignore 0 Average — Ignore Errors Math yes Multiplication Table Cube Roots nth Roots Square Numbers Square Roots Calculations yes Calculate a Ratio Calculate Age KILLLLLLL Calculate Loan Payments GPA Formula Calculate VAT Tax How to Grade Formulas Find yes Find a Number in a Column / Workbook Find Most Frequent Numbers Find Smallest n Values Find nth Occurance of Character in Text Find and Extract Number from String Find Earliest or Latest Date Based on Criteria Find First Cell with Any Value Find Last Row Find Last Row with Data Find Missing Values Find Largest n Values Most Frequent Number Conditional Formatting yes Conditional Format — Dates & Times Conditional Format — Highlight Blank Cells New Functions XLOOKUP Replaces VLOOKUP, HLOOKUP, and INDEX / MATCH Logical yes AND Checks whether all conditions are met. TRUE/FALSE IF If condition is met, do something, if not, do something else. IFERROR If result is an error then do something else. NOT Changes TRUE to FALSE and FALSE to TRUE. OR Checks whether any conditions are met. TRUE/FALSE XOR Checks whether one and only one condition is met. TRUE/FALSE Lookup & Reference yes FALSE The logical value: FALSE. TRUE The logical value: TRUE. ADDRESS Returns a cell address as text. AREAS Returns the number of areas in a reference. CHOOSE Chooses a value from a list based on it’s position number. COLUMN Returns the column number of a cell reference. COLUMNS Returns the number of columns in an array. HLOOKUP Lookup a value in the first row and return a value. HYPERLINK Creates a clickable link. INDEX Returns a value based on it’s column and row numbers. INDIRECT Creates a cell reference from text. LOOKUP Looks up values either horizontally or vertically. MATCH Searches for a value in a list and returns its position. OFFSET Creates a reference offset from a starting point. ROW Returns the row number of a cell reference. ROWS Returns the number of rows in an array. TRANSPOSE Flips the oriention of a range of cells. VLOOKUP Lookup a value in the first column and return a value. Date & Time yes DATE Returns a date from year, month, and day. DATEDIF Number of days, months or years between two dates. DATEVALUE Converts a date stored as text into a valid date DAY Returns the day as a number (1-31). DAYS Returns the number of days between two dates. DAYS360 Returns days between 2 dates in a 360 day year. EDATE Returns a date, n months away from a start date. EOMONTH Returns the last day of the month, n months away date. HOUR Returns the hour as a number (0-23). MINUTE Returns the minute as a number (0-59). MONTH Returns the month as a number (1-12). NETWORKDAYS Number of working days between 2 dates. NETWORKDAYS.INTL Working days between 2 dates, custom weekends. NOW Returns the current date and time. SECOND Returns the second as a number (0-59) TIME Returns the time from a hour, minute, and second. TIMEVALUE Converts a time stored as text into a valid time. TODAY Returns the current date. WEEKDAY Returns the day of the week as a number (1-7). WEEKNUM Returns the week number in a year (1-52). WORKDAY The date n working days from a date. WORKDAY.INTL The date n working days from a date, custom weekends. YEAR Returns the year. YEARFRAC Returns the fraction of a year between 2 dates. Engineering yes CONVERT Convert number from one unit to another. Financial yes FV Calculates the future value. PV Calculates the present value. NPER Calculates the total number of payment periods. PMT Calculates the payment amount. RATE Calculates the interest Rate. NPV Calculates the net present value. IRR The internal rate of return for a set of periodic CFs. XIRR The internal rate of return for a set of non-periodic CFs. PRICE Calculates the price of a bond. YIELD Calculates the bond yield. INTRATE The interest rate of a fully invested security. Information yes CELL Returns information about a cell. ERROR.TYPE Returns a value representing the cell error. ISBLANK Test if cell is blank. TRUE/FALSE ISERR Test if cell value is an error, ignores #N/A. TRUE/FALSE ISERROR Test if cell value is an error. TRUE/FALSE ISEVEN Test if cell value is even. TRUE/FALSE ISFORMULA Test if cell is a formula. TRUE/FALSE ISLOGICAL Test if cell is logical (TRUE or FALSE). TRUE/FALSE ISNA Test if cell value is #N/A. TRUE/FALSE ISNONTEXT Test if cell is not text (blank cells are not text). TRUE/FALSE ISNUMBER Test if cell is a number. TRUE/FALSE ISODD Test if cell value is odd. TRUE/FALSE ISREF Test if cell value is a reference. TRUE/FALSE ISTEXT Test if cell is text. TRUE/FALSE N Converts a value to a number. NA Returns the error: #N/A. TYPE Returns the type of value in a cell. Math yes ABS Calculates the absolute value of a number. AGGREGATE Define and perform calculations for a database or a list. CEILING Rounds a number up, to the nearest specified multiple. COS Returns the cosine of an angle. DEGREES Converts radians to degrees. DSUM Sums database records that meet certain criteria. EVEN Rounds to the nearest even integer. EXP Calculates the exponential value for a given number. FACT Returns the factorial. FLOOR Rounds a number down, to the nearest specified multiple. GCD Returns the greatest common divisor. INT Rounds a number down to the nearest integer. LCM Returns the least common multiple. LN Returns the natural logarithm of a number. LOG Returns the logarithm of a number to a specified base. LOG10 Returns the base-10 logarithm of a number. MOD Returns the remainder after dividing. MROUND Rounds a number to a specified multiple. ODD Rounds to the nearest odd integer. PI The value of PI. POWER Calculates a number raised to a power. PRODUCT Multiplies an array of numbers. QUOTIENT Returns the integer result of division. RADIANS Converts an angle into radians. RAND Calculates a random number between 0 and 1. RANDBETWEEN Calculates a random number between two numbers. ROUND Rounds a number to a specified number of digits. ROUNDDOWN Rounds a number down (towards zero). ROUNDUP Rounds a number up (away from zero). SIGN Returns the sign of a number. SIN Returns the sine of an angle. SQRT Calculates the square root of a number. SUBTOTAL Returns a summary statistic for a series of data. SUM Adds numbers together. SUMIF Sums numbers that meet a criteria. SUMIFS Sums numbers that meet multiple criteria. SUMPRODUCT Multiplies arrays of numbers and sums the resultant array. TAN Returns the tangent of an angle. TRUNC Truncates a number to a specific number of digits. Stats yes AVERAGE Averages numbers. AVERAGEA Averages numbers. Includes text & FALSE =0, TRUE =1. AVERAGEIF Averages numbers that meet a criteria. AVERAGEIFS Averages numbers that meet multiple criteria. CORREL Calculates the correlation of two series. COUNT Counts cells that contain a number. COUNTA Count cells that are non-blank. COUNTBLANK Counts cells that are blank. COUNTIF Counts cells that meet a criteria. COUNTIFS Counts cells that meet multiple criteria. FORECAST Predict future y-values from linear trend line. FREQUENCY Counts values that fall within specified ranges. GROWTH Calculates Y values based on exponential growth. INTERCEPT Calculates the Y intercept for a best-fit line. LARGE Returns the kth largest value. LINEST Returns statistics about a trendline. MAX Returns the largest number. MEDIAN Returns the median number. MIN Returns the smallest number. MODE Returns the most common number. PERCENTILE Returns the kth percentile. PERCENTILE.INC Returns the kth percentile. Where k is inclusive. PERCENTILE.EXC Returns the kth percentile. Where k is exclusive. QUARTILE Returns the specified quartile value. QUARTILE.INC Returns the specified quartile value. Inclusive. QUARTILE.EXC Returns the specified quartile value. Exclusive. RANK Rank of a number within a series. RANK.AVG Rank of a number within a series. Averages. RANK.EQ Rank of a number within a series. Top Rank. SLOPE Calculates the slope from linear regression. SMALL Returns the kth smallest value. STDEV Calculates the standard deviation. STDEV.P Calculates the SD of an entire population. STDEV.S Calculates the SD of a sample. STDEVP Calculates the SD of an entire population TREND Calculates Y values based on a trendline. Text yes CHAR Returns a character specified by a code. CLEAN Removes all non-printable characters. CODE Returns the numeric code for a character. CONCATENATE Combines text together. DOLLAR Converts a number to text in currency format. EXACT Test if cells are exactly equal. Case-sensitive. TRUE/FALSE FIND Locates position of text within a cell.Case-sensitive. LEFT Truncates text a number of characters from the left. LEN Counts number of characters in text. LOWER Converts text to lower case. MID Extracts text from the middle of a cell. PROPER Converts text to proper case. REPLACE Replaces text based on it’s location. REPT Repeats text a number of times. RIGHT Truncates text a number of characters from the right. SEARCH Locates position of text within a cell.Not Case-sensitive. SUBSTITUTE Finds and replaces text. Case-sensitive. TEXT Converts a value into text with a specific number format. TRIM Removes all extra spaces from text. UPPER Converts text to upper case. VALUE Converts a number stored as text into a number.

October 28, 2020


Excel has a number of counting formulas that provide you great flexibility in summarizing data. There are many circumstances where it is helpful to count items in Excel. Sometimes you just want to know how many cells have “something” in them, whatever that something is. Other times, you want to know how many cells don’t have anything in them. Still other times you might want to count only cells that include specific text. Fortunately, Excel has many ways to help you count data. Let’s take a look at a few of the options available to you.

COUNT

=COUNT(range)

This formula counts the number of selected cells that contain numbers. It will ignore any cells that contain anything other than numbers for the purposes of counting. This would be helpful for counting the number of orders, for example, using the column with the final total of the order.

COUNTIF

=COUNTIF(range,criteria)

The COUNTIF function includes the cell in the count only if the contents of the cell match what you specify. An example of where I have used this function is counting replies for event attendance. I could have a spreadsheet with a column marked Attendance and then type Yes or No in the individual cells, as appropriate. Typically I would leave the fields blank to indicate someone has not responded yet (and use Conditional Formatting to turn those blank cells bright yellow, so they would stand out visually in a longer list of data). If I wanted to know the number of Yes responses in column B with a list of ten attendees, I would type the formula =COUNTIF($B$1:$B$10,”Yes”). Note that the criteria must be in double quotes. I could then copy that formula and change the Yes to No to find out how many people had declined the event invitation. I am using the dollar symbols in the formula to force Excel to only use those cells (known as absolute references) when I copy and paste the formula to a different cell.

COUNTIFS

=COUNTIFS(criteria range 1, criteria 1, criteria range 2, criteria 2,…).

The COUNTIFS function includes the cell in the count only if it matches what you specify, but the S added on the end of the function name allows you to specify more than one parameter. All criteria specified must be present in order for the cell to be counted, not just one of the criteria. An example of using this type of function would be counting the number of customers that had placed orders greater than $100,000 during the month of September. Additional criteria could be added, such as in a certain state or regional office location. You can specify up to 127 different criteria, though I confess, I can’t imagine having that many restrictions. The general format of the formula is to establish what the criteria range is and then what the criteria is. If I had 1000 orders and my Order Amount field in column D with my month of order field being in Column E, I would create the formulas as =COUNTIFS(D1:D1000,”>100000”, E1:E1000,”September”).

COUNTA

=COUNTA(range)

The COUNTA function will provide a count of selected cells that are not empty. Unlike the COUNT function, which only counted a cell if it had a number, COUNTA doesn’t care what the cell contains, as long as it is not blank. I would use this formulas to count the number of responses in a survey, for instance, where the results of each survey were typed in a separate row.

COUNTBLANK

=COUNTBLANK(range)

The COUNTBLANK function will count the number of selected cells that are empty. Using my earlier example of an event attendance list, this is a great way to know how many responses are outstanding, using the blank Attendance column cells.

I hope you enjoyed learning about these different COUNT functions that are built in to Excel. They can save you a lot of time and frustration.

About the Author:

Marie Herman CAP, OM, ACS, MOSM is the founder of MRH Enterprises LLC, whose services include teaching technology and professional development classes through corporate training and various webinars and workshops, writing articles, and more.  She leads study groups to prepare students for Google G Suite, Microsoft Office Specialist, and the Certified Administrative Professional certification exams.

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