Excel exercises
Excel exercises: Counting rows
Counting gets harder as soon as the column has gaps, text that looks like a number, or a condition attached.
COUNT counts cells holding a number and passes over text, blanks and logical values. COUNTA counts anything that is not empty, so a date stored as text counts there and not here. COUNTIF adds one condition, and COUNTIFS adds as many as you like, provided each range covers the same rows. Wildcards go inside the quotes: a star for any run of characters, a question mark for exactly one.
Six exercises at levels 1 to 3, and the last one asks which count answers a given question.
The pair that trips people is COUNT and COUNTA on the same column. Run both on a list with three blanks and look at the gap, because that gap is the only reliable sign that some values are stored as text. Fixing the types changes the total, which is why the count comes first.
A stale exercise is one you finished two weeks ago or longer. One that needs practice took a hint, or more than one try.
0 of 6 complete
- COUNTIF: count one condition Count the rows that meet one condition, and get the edges of the range right.
- COUNT: numbers only, and what it skips Paid Count the cells that hold real numbers, and read a short count as evidence of text.
- COUNTA: count the non-empty cells Paid Count filled cells rather than numbers, so a checklist reports real progress.
- COUNTIFS: several conditions Paid Count the rows that satisfy two conditions at once instead of filtering the table first.
- COUNTIF with wildcards Paid Count partial matches on text instead of listing every exact value that qualifies.
- Count functions summary Paid Tell counting values from counting rows, then use both together to find gaps.