Question

Counting how many cells have text in a column?

Asked by: Arka3L

Ok, this is a really simply one that i'm sure anyone would love to get ahold of an extra 1000 points.

Ok, basically, i have a large excel spreadsheet with multiple columns of information. One of my columns is setup to enter payments in if i need to. At the top, it logs all the payments that have been made, so, something like this : =SUM(H4:H800)

So anything in that H column gets added up. But, i need to know how i can make a counter. Because not every cell has a payment in it, most of them are actually blank.

How would i code excel to make a count of how many cells have entered text in the H column?

For example, say, between H4 and H800 only 56 cells have text in them. How would i make it so that it counts the cells in that column to display 56?

Thanks!

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Asked On
2006-03-29 at 15:44:35ID21794546
Tags

cells

,

excel

,

count

,

text

,

how

Topic

Microsoft Excel Spreadsheet Software

Participating Experts
2
Points
250
Comments
9

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Answers

 

by: FlysterPosted on 2006-03-29 at 15:51:28ID: 16327862

=COUNTBLANK(H4:H800)

Flyster

 

by: byundtPosted on 2006-03-29 at 16:03:53ID: 16327947

Hi Arka3L,
=COUNT(H4:H800)           returns number of cells that contain numbers
=COUNTA(H4:H800)         returns number of cells that contain numbers or text

Cheers!

Brad

 

by: FlysterPosted on 2006-03-29 at 16:04:49ID: 16327957

Actually, that will count only the blank cells. This should count the text:

=COUNTA(H4:H800)-COUNT(H4:H800)

 

by: Arka3LPosted on 2006-03-29 at 16:05:01ID: 16327958

Nope, that simply returned a 0...

And i dont want it to count the blanks, i want it to count what cells are not blank

 

by: Arka3LPosted on 2006-03-29 at 16:07:39ID: 16327979

Ok,

Now neither of your suggestions work and i get an error:

"Excel cannot calculate a formula. Cell references in the forumula refer to the formuals result, creating a circular reference."

What the heck does that mean lol

 

by: byundtPosted on 2006-03-29 at 16:08:32ID: 16327986

Arka3L,
And if you want to exclude cells that contain an empty string (such as might be returned by a formula like:  =IF(A1>3,A1, ""), then try:
=COUNTIF(H4:H800,"?*")             Counts cells that contain at least one character
Brad

 

by: Arka3LPosted on 2006-03-29 at 16:09:19ID: 16327995

Ok, thats weird....

If i entered that code in any other column, it works, but if i enter that code in the same colum H, it gives that error. Why is that? and how do i stop that? It needs to be in the same column.

 

by: byundtPosted on 2006-03-29 at 16:10:09ID: 16328000

Arka3L,
You get the circular reference error if you put the suggested formulas in one of the cells in the range H4:H800. To use the formula in cell H4, just change the reference to H5:H800
Brad

 

by: Arka3LPosted on 2006-03-29 at 16:11:33ID: 16328008

Hmmm, ok

Well thanks byundt, you've earnt yourself some points matey.

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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