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 Non-Blank Cells.

Counting Non-Blank Cells

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated May 19, 2022)
This tip applies to Excel 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003


1

You may already know that you can use the COUNTBLANK function to return the number of blank cells in a range. What if you want to count the number of non-blank cells in the same range? One way is to use the COUNTA function, as shown here:

=COUNTA(B1:B13)

The only problem with this formula is that it doesn't return the complementary value to what COUNTBLANK returns. In other words, the result of COUNTA added to the result of COUNTBLANK doesn't equal the total number of cells in the original range. The reason for this is that both COUNTBLANK and COUNTA treat formulas different. COUNTBLANK includes, as blank, formulas that return a blank value. COUNTA does not consider such cells blank (even though a blank is returned), so it includes them in its count.

If you consider non-blank cells to be those that are not returned by COUNTBLANK, then you will need to use a longer formula:

=(ROWS(B1:B13)*COLUMNS(B1:B13))-COUNTBLANK(B1:B13)

This formula subtracts the COUNTBLANK result from the total number of cells in the same range.

ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (2996) 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 Non-Blank Cells.

Author Bio

Allen Wyatt

With more than 50 non-fiction books and numerous magazine articles to his credit, Allen Wyatt is an internationally recognized author. He is president of Sharon Parq Associates, a computer and publishing services company. ...

MORE FROM ALLEN

Displaying the Developer Tab

The Developer tab of the ribbon is the gateway to many advanced features in Word, including those features related to ...

Discover More

Showing Only Added Text with Track Changes

Do you want to change how Track Changes displays the markup in your document? Here's how you can completely hide deleted ...

Discover More

Throwing Out the Lowest Score

Want to add up a bunch of scores, without including the lowest one in the bunch? You can make a small change to your ...

Discover More

Solve Real Business Problems Master business modeling and analysis techniques with Excel and transform data into bottom-line results. This hands-on, scenario-focused guide shows you how to use the latest Excel tools to integrate data from multiple tables. Check out Microsoft Excel 2013 Data Analysis and Business Modeling today!

More ExcelTips (menu)

Counting Odds and Evens

If you have a series of values in a range of cells, you may wonder how many of those values are even and how many are ...

Discover More

Patterns of Numbers with a Formula

Want to create a sequential pattern using formulas? It's easy to do if you take a look at how your data repeats. This tip ...

Discover More

Deriving High and Low Non-Zero Values

When analyzing your numeric data, you may need to figure out the largest and smallest numbers in a set of values. If you ...

Discover More
Subscribe

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in ExcelTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

View most recent newsletter.

Comments

If you would like to add an image to your comment (not an avatar, but an image to help in making the point of your comment), include the characters [{fig}] (all 7 characters, in the sequence shown) in your comment text. You’ll be prompted to upload your image when you submit the comment. Maximum image size is 6Mpixels. Images larger than 600px wide or 1000px tall will be reduced. Up to three images may be included in a comment. All images are subject to review. Commenting privileges may be curtailed if inappropriate images are posted.

What is 7 + 9?

2018-12-26 15:10:35

MARLENE CASE

I don't understand. I used your formula, but I get the same answer for both formulas; 69

=COUNTA(J2:J98)

=(ROWS(J2:J98)*COLUMNS(J2:J98))-COUNTBLANK(J2:J98)

I am trying to figure out why Excel is not counting the cells that have an X in them correctly. When I counted by hand there are 67 cells with x in them and yet Excel insists upon telling me it is 69.

I thought by countblank I could figure it out until I read your hint. Now I am even more confused. I have never had this problem with Excel before I started using Microsoft 365. Very frustrating.


This Site

Got a version of Excel that uses the menu interface (Excel 97, Excel 2000, Excel 2002, or Excel 2003)? This site is for you! If you use a later version of Excel, visit our ExcelTips site focusing on the ribbon interface.

Newest Tips
Subscribe

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in ExcelTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

(Your e-mail address is not shared with anyone, ever.)

View the most recent newsletter.