Let's say you want to find out how many people entered project hours this week or how many products sold on a specific day. To count nonblank cells, use the COUNTA function.

Example

The example may be easier to understand if you copy it to a blank worksheet.

How to copy an example

  1. Create a blank workbook or worksheet.
  2. Select the example in the Help topic.

    Note Do not select the row or column headers.

    selecting an example from helpSelecting an example from Help

  3. Press CTRL+C.
  4. In the worksheet, select cell A1, and press CTRL+V.
  5. To switch between viewing the results and viewing the formulas that return the results, press CTRL+` (grave accent), or on the Formulas tab, in the Formula Auditing group, click the Show Formulas button.
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A
Data
Sales
19
TRUE
Formula Description (Result)
=COUNTA(A2:A6) Counts the number of nonblank cells in the list above (3)
=COUNTA(A2:A3, A6) Counts the number of nonblank cells in the top two, and bottom cell in the list (1)

Function details