COUNT

Counts the numbers in the list of arguments, ignoring text entries.

Syntax:

COUNT(value1, value2, ... value30)

value1 to value30 are up to 30 values or ranges representing the values to be counted.

Examples:

COUNT(2, 4, 6, "eight")

returns 3, because 2, 4 and 6 are numbers ("eight" is text).

COUNT(B1:B3)

where cells B1, B2, B3 contain 1.1, 2.2, and apple returns 2.

COUNT(B1:B3)

where cells B1, B2, B3 are empty, returns 0.

Application:

Let's imagine you are a teacher and you've just graded a quiz for your class. You want to see how many students answered a specific question. You use a spreadsheet to keep track of the scores.

Here is a simplified table of the results for Question 5:

	Student Name	Score for Question 5
	A	B
1	Alex	10
2	Ben	8
3	Chloe	N/A
4	David	10
5	Emily	9
6	Frank	N/A
7	Grace	7

To find out how many students received a numerical score for Question 5, you would use the COUNT function on the "Score for Question 5" column.

The function would look at the list of scores: 10, 8, N/A, 10, 9, N/A, 7.

The COUNT function would go through the list and do the following:

It sees 10 and counts it. (Count is now 1)
It sees 8 and counts it. (Count is now 2)
It sees N/A (which is text) and ignores it.
It sees 10 and counts it. (Count is now 3)
It sees 9 and counts it. (Count is now 4)
It sees N/A (which is text) and ignores it.
It sees 7 and counts it. (Count is now 5)

So, the result of the COUNT function would be 5. This tells you that five students out of the seven received a numerical score for Question 5, while two students either didn't take the quiz or their score hasn't been entered yet.

Result:

5