Quick count of non-blank cells in a workbook?

[Celly]

I am looking for a quick and dirty way to count the total non-blank cells as a metric in order to do rough comparisons of complexity between two or more workbooks.

If this is possible to do without VBA, it would be helpful.

 

[Joe4]

If this is possible to do without VBA, it would be helpful.

Where would this calculation be placed?
It would have to be on a different sheet, or else you would have a circular reference (as the range that the formula would look at would have to include the cell that this formula is in!).

If you wanted to count the populated cells on Sheet1, then you could place this formula somewhere on sheet 2:

=COUNTA(Sheet1!1:1048576)

 

[Celly]

Where would this calculation be placed?
It would have to be on a different sheet, or else you would have a circular reference (as the range that the formula would look at would have to include the cell that this formula is in!).

If you wanted to count the populated cells on Sheet1, then you could place this formula somewhere on sheet 2:

=COUNTA(Sheet1!1:1048576)

Thanks, I can work with that!

So my project has 95,000 non-blank cells (the vast majority are formulas). A lot of work went into it.

 

[Joe4]

You are welcome.

So my project has 95,000 non-blank cells (the vast majority are formulas). A lot of work went into it.

Wow, sounds like quite the behemoth! How is the performance? Is it pretty slow?

 

[Celly]

You are welcome.

Wow, sounds like quite the behemoth! How is the performance? Is it pretty slow?

Yes it is. The performance is pretty good actually. There is some supporting VBA which does a binary search of the entire simulation, and it can take up to 10 seconds to "solve" it. But making updates to an individual simulation parameter is pretty snappy.

I'd also love to count the number of floating point operations which go into a full solve of the simulation. I haven't figured that one out yet.

 

[Joe4]

I'd also love to count the number of floating point operations which go into a full solve of the simulation. I haven't figured that one out yet.

Not sure how to do that (or even if it is possible), but feel free to post a new question about it.

 

[Celly]

Will do!