Google Sheets, a part of the Google Suite, is a very powerful online tool that aims to provide users with the ability to manipulate data in a spreadsheet format. One of the many features it comes with is the ability to count cells containing specific types of data. In this tutorial, we will be focusing on how to count cells containing text.
Using the COUNTA Function
The best way to count cells containing text in Google Sheets is by using the COUNTA function. This function counts the number of cells that are not empty within a range. This includes cells containing numbers, text, logical values, errors, empty text (“”) and more.
The syntax for the COUNTA function is: =COUNTA(value1, [value2, …]).
The value1, value2 parameters are the cells or range of cells you wish to count.
Example:
Let’s assume that we have a list of names in cells A1 to A5 and we want to count the number of cells with text.
Here is how the COUNTA function would be used:
=COUNTA(A1:A5)
The formula will return the number of cells containing text within the range A1:A5.
Differences between COUNTA and COUNT function
It’s worth noting that there is a difference between the COUNTA and COUNT functions in Google Sheets. The COUNT function only counts cells with numbers, while the COUNTA function counts all cells that are not empty (including those with text).
Conclusion
Counting cells with text in Google Sheets is quite simple with the use of the COUNTA function. It is a versatile function that can help you understand the structure and composition of your data, making data analysis in Google Sheets that much easier.