Excel basic functions you should definitely know!! (COUNT & COUNTA)

COUNT & COUNTA

If you are curious to know how many cells in a given range contain numeric values (numbers or dates), don't waste your time counting them by hand. The Excel COUNT function will bring you the count in a heartbeat:

COUNT(value1, [value2], …)

While the COUNT function deals only with those cells that contain numbers, the Excel COUNTA function counts all cells that are not blank, whether they contain numbers, dates, times, text, logical values of TRUE and FALSE, errors or empty text strings (""):

COUNTA (value1, [value2], …)

For example, to find out how many cells in column A contain numbers, use this formula:

=COUNT(A:A)

To count all non-empty cells in column A, go with this one:

=COUNTA(A:A)

In both formulas, you use the so-called "whole column reference" (A:A) that refers to all of the cells within column A.

The following screenshot shows the difference: