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

Making Wider Footer Margins

Want the margins used in your footers (or headers) to be wider than the margins used in the rest of your document? There ...

Discover More

Finding Text Not Using a Particular Font

Word makes it easy to find text that uses a particular font or font characteristics. What it doesn't do is make it easy ...

Discover More

Centering a Paragraph with the Keyboard

Need a quick shortcut that you can use to center your paragraph between the margins? The answer is here.

Discover More

Professional Development Guidance! Four world-class developers offer start-to-finish guidance for building powerful, robust, and secure applications with Excel. The authors show how to consistently make the right design decisions and make the most of Excel's powerful features. Check out Professional Excel Development today!

More ExcelTips (menu)

Viewing Formulas versus Results

Sometimes it is helpful to see the actual formulas in a cell, rather than the results of those formulas. Here's how to ...

Discover More

Using a Formula to Replace Spaces with Dashes

If you need a formula to change spaces to some other character, the SUBSTITUTE function fits the bill. Here's how to use it.

Discover More

Calculating the Interval between Occurrences

With a long list of items in a worksheet, you may want to determine the last time a particular item appeared in the list. ...

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 nine more than 3?

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.