COUNTA function

This article describes the formula syntax and usage of the COUNTA function in Microsoft Excel.

Description

The COUNTA function counts the number of cells that are not empty in a range.

Syntax

COUNTA(value1, [value2], ...)

The COUNTA function syntax has the following arguments:

• value1    Required. The first argument representing the values that you want to count.

• value2, ...    Optional. Additional arguments representing the values that you want to count, up to a maximum of 255 arguments.

Remarks

• The COUNTA function counts cells containing any type of information, including error values and empty text (""). For example, if the range contains a formula that returns an empty string, the COUNTA function counts that value. The COUNTA function does not count empty cells.

• If you do not need to count logical values, text, or error values (in other words, if you want to count only cells that contain numbers), use the COUNT function.

• If you want to count only cells that meet certain criteria, use the COUNTIF function or the COUNTIFS function.

Example

Copy the example data in the following table, and paste it in cell A1 of a new Excel worksheet. For formulas to show results, select them, press F2, and then press Enter. If you need to, you can adjust the column widths to see all the data.

Data
39790
19
22.24
TRUE
#DIV/0!
Formula	Description	Result
=COUNTA(A2:A7)	Counts the number of nonblank cells in cells A2 through A7.	5