Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Excel versions: 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. If you are using a later version (Excel 2007 or later), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for later versions of Excel, click here: Counting the Number of Blank Cells.
Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated January 24, 2026)
This tip applies to Excel 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003
One of the worksheet functions provided by Excel allows you to quickly and easily count the number of blank cells in a range. The format of the function is as follows:
= COUNTBLANK(range)
The function returns an integer value representing the number of blank cells in the range. You should be careful, however. If you have the display of zero values suppressed for the worksheet, a cell can appear blank when it is not really blank. COUNTBLANK returns blank cells, not counting those that would have a zero displayed if you chose to display such values. (How you suppress the display of zero values in a worksheet is discussed in other ExcelTips.)
ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (2157) applies to Microsoft Excel 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. You can find a version of this tip for the ribbon interface of Excel (Excel 2007 and later) here: Counting the Number of Blank Cells.
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Please Note:
This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Excel versions: 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. If you are using a later version (Excel 2007 or later), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for later versions of Excel, click here:
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