COUNT vs COUNTA in Google Sheets
COUNT counts cells that contain numbers. COUNTA counts cells that are not empty, whatever they contain. The difference tells you how clean your data is: if COUNTA says 6 phone entries but COUNT says 4, two of them are text like "n/a".
To count blank cells, use COUNTBLANK. To count only cells that meet a condition, use COUNTIF, covered later in the course.
Syntax
=COUNT(range) · =COUNTA(range)
Example
=COUNTA(A2:A7)
How many people are listed, regardless of what the cells contain.
Common mistakes
- Using COUNT on a column of names: it returns 0.
- A cell with a space looks empty but COUNTA counts it.
- Numbers stored as text are counted by COUNTA but not COUNT.
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