COUNTA Generator
Count every cell in a range that is not empty, including text, numbers, dates, and errors.
COUNTA
Count every cell in a range that is not empty, including text, numbers, dates, and errors.
The cells to check. COUNTA counts everything that is not truly empty.
=COUNTA(A2:A100)Worked Example
A survey response column A2:A21 holds 20 cells, and 3 respondents skipped the question, leaving those cells empty.
=COUNTA(A2:A21)Returns: 17 - the number of cells that contain an answer.
Checks Before You Paste
- •COUNT tallies numbers only, COUNTA tallies anything at all - text, dates, TRUE/FALSE, and even error values such as #N/A. On a column of names COUNT returns 0 while COUNTA returns the number of names.
- •A formula that returns "", such as =IF(A2="","",A2), leaves a cell that looks blank but still counts. To ignore those, use =SUMPRODUCT(--(A2:A100<>"")), which counts only cells with real content - though unlike COUNTA it returns an error if any cell in the range holds one.
- •COUNTA takes no criteria - use COUNTIF or COUNTIFS when the count needs a condition, as in =COUNTIF(A2:A100,">100"). COUNTA does accept several ranges at once, as in =COUNTA(A2:A100, C2:C100), and whole-column refs like =COUNTA(A:A) work but include the header row.