Syntax. COUNTA(value1,value2,...)
Definition. This function calculates how many values are included in an argument list. Use the COUNTA() function if you want to know how many cells in a range or an array contain data.
Arguments
value1 (required) and value2 (optional). At least one and up to 255 arguments (30 in Excel 2003 and earlier versions) indicating the values to be counted. A value can be any information, including an empty string (“”). However, empty cells are not counted. If an argument is an array or a reference, the empty cells in the array or for the reference are ignored. If you want to exclude logical values, text, or error values, use the COUNT() function.
Background. Like the COUNT() function, this function can save you time when you are counting the values in an argument list. The only difference is that the COUNTA() function also counts text, logical values, and error values.
Example. For the cell range shown earlier in Figure 12-3, the COUNTA() function returns 20 because the word closed in the cell range is counted.
To display the number of entries in the cell range in the status bar, right-click the status bar and select Count (see Figure 12-4, in the discussion of the COUNT() function).