COUNT and COUNTA
Part of the Fundamentals section of Coddy's Excel journey. Lesson 26 of 42.
Sometimes the question isn't "how much?" but "how many?". Excel has two counters, and the difference between them matters:
=COUNT(B2:B6) counts cells holding NUMBERS
=COUNTA(B2:B6) counts cells that are NOT EMPTYPicture a score column where some students have a number and others have the text absent: 85, absent, 92, absent, 78. Over that range, COUNT returns 3, only the numeric scores. COUNTA returns 5, every filled cell, text included.
So: COUNT answers "how many actual numbers do I have?" (useful before trusting an average), while COUNTA answers "how many entries are there at all?". Neither counts empty cells.
The extra A in COUNTA stands for all, a handy way to keep them straight. Same pattern as always: name, parentheses, range.
Challenge
EasyThe score column mixes numbers and the word absent: check B2:B6.
Two labels wait below the table: Graded in A8 and Entries in A9.
- In
B8: how many cells inB2:B6hold a number, useCOUNT - In
B9: how many cells inB2:B6are not empty, useCOUNTA
The tests swap some "absent" entries for real scores, so the two answers must come from formulas.
Try it yourself
| A | B | C | D | E | F | G | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Student | Score | |||||
| 2 | Maya | 85 | |||||
| 3 | Leo | absent | |||||
| 4 | Zoe | 92 | |||||
| 5 | Sam | absent | |||||
| 6 | Ivy | 78 | |||||
| 7 | |||||||
| 8 | Graded | ||||||
| 9 | Entries | ||||||
| 10 | |||||||
| 11 | |||||||
| 12 | |||||||
| 13 | |||||||
| 14 |
Test yourselfThis lesson includes a short quiz. Start the lesson to answer it and track your progress.
All lessons in Fundamentals
1Meet the Spreadsheet
What Is a Spreadsheet?Cells and ReferencesYour First CellsRows, Columns and the GridRecap: Meet the Grid