Question

What formula should you use if you want to count how many cells are blank?

Option 1: =COUNTA(range)
Option 2: =COUNTBLANK(range)
Option 3: =COUNTIF(range, "")
Option 4: =BLANKCOUNT(range)

Answer 1

To count blank cells in a spreadsheet, use =COUNTBLANK(range). Alternatively, =COUNTIF(range, "") can also be used by setting the criteria to an empty string. Avoid using =COUNTA(range), which counts non-blank cells, and =BLANKCOUNT(range), which is not a valid function. The correct answer is B.

Step-by-step explanation:

If you want to count how many cells are blank in a given range in a spreadsheet, you should use Option 2: =COUNTBLANK(range). This function is specifically designed to count the number of empty or blank cells within a specified range. For example, if you have a range from A1 to A10 and you want to know how many of those cells are blank, you would use =COUNTBLANK(A1:A10).

Option 3, =COUNTIF(range, ""), can also be used to count blank cells by setting the criteria to an empty string (""). This function counts the number of cells in a range that meet a specified condition, which, in this case, is being empty.

Option 1, =COUNTA(range), is used to count the number of non-blank cells in a range, which is the opposite of what we're looking for. Finally, Option 4, =BLANKCOUNT(range), does not exist in Excel or similar spreadsheet programs, thus it cannot be used.

Answer 2

Option 2: =COUNTBLANK(range)

Option 3: =COUNTIF(range, "")

Either option will work.

The CountBlank function does exactly as implied. It counts the number of blank cells. The "range" refers to the range or set of cells you want to focus on. For instance, if you typed in =CountBlank(A1:A5) then it counts the number of blank cells spanning from A1 to A5.

=CountBlank(A1:B2) will count the number of blanks spanning from A1 to B2. It forms a rectangle with A1 in the upper left corner and B2 in the lower right corner.

The CountIf function counts a number of cells based on a specific condition. If that condition is a set of quotes with nothing between them, then it acts exactly like CountBlank. It's going through each cell and asking "is the cell blank or empty?". If yes, then it adds to the count. If no, then it moves on.

Both functions have their pros and cons. The CountBlank is probably the best choice since it seems most intuitive/easy. Quite often excel functions are a bit cryptic. That's not the case here. Also, the name should be fairly easy to remember. However, it might be possible to confuse CountBlank with BlankCount. The first is a function while the second is not.

Despite CountBlank being intuitive, the CountIf function is extremely useful in a lot of other settings. So I recommend getting familiar with it.

If you have further questions then let me know. I also recommend looking at the documentation of each function. It will give you examples to try out.

I tested various examples in LibreOffice Calc spreadsheet. But it should work in Excel and other similar spreadsheet programs.