Count items in a list

Beginner

In inventory work, a quick count helps you confirm how many products you’re tracking and whether any quantities are missing.

In Excel, there are two common counting functions:

  • COUNT counts cells that contain numbers.
  • COUNTA counts cells that are not empty (numbers, text, or anything else).

What you need to do

  1. Click cell B10.
  2. Use COUNTA to count how many product names are listed in cells A2:A8.
  3. Click cell D10.
  4. Use COUNT to count how many quantity values (numbers) are entered in cells C2:C8.

When you’re done, you should see the total number of products in B10, and the number of filled-in quantities in D10.

Need some help?

Hint 1

COUNTA counts non-empty cells. Use it on the Product column (A2 through A8) in cell B10.

Hint 2

COUNT counts only numbers. Use it on the Quantity column (C2 through C8) in cell D10.

Related function(s)

Exercise