Calculating counts in Excel is a simple task, as long as we know the difference between counting functions. Let’s take a deeper look into the difference between COUNT and COUNTA so that we can count on (see what I did there) Excel functions to accurately total the number of values in a range for us.
The COUNT function counts the number of cells within a range that contains numbers. Check out the example table above: the COUNT function returns “2” because it is only counting the two number values in Column B and ignoring every column entry that is not a number.
Now look at the COUNTA function: this function is counting the number of non-blank cells within a range, so any cells with numbers, text, symbols or any other data will be included in the total. In our example table, COUNTA returns “6” because there are six cells in column B that contain a value of any kind.
It’s easy to remember it this way: COUNT vs COUNTAnythingthatisntblank 🤓
Hopefully now you feel like you can count on Excel to calculate counts for you! The distinction between these two functions is important for accurate counts, so take the time to familiarize yourself with their use cases.
