When a cell is included in COUNTA _and_ COUNTBLANK "hit count"?

[Jaymond Flurrie]

I have a 2x7 size cell area. =COUNTBLANK(TheAreaImTalkingAbout) returns as the answer 14, =COUNTA(TheAreaImTalkingAbout) returns 3 i.e. three of the cells are both. What's the key factor to make cell both "A" and "BLANK"?

If I activate the edit mode of the cell (doubleclick+Enter), it is blank. If I run "Clear Contents" for it, it is no more "A", just "BLANK".

 

[XOR LX]

Hi.

I would hazard a guess that 3 of your cells in that range are not "genuine" blanks but contain e.g. the "" as a result of formulas in those cells.

Regards

 

[Jaymond Flurrie]

Hi.

I would hazard a guess that 3 of your cells in that range are not "genuine" blanks but contain e.g. the "" as a result of formulas in those cells.

Regards

Doesn't this require that there are three cells that have formula in them? None of them does have a formula.

 

[XOR LX]

The formulas could have been pasted over as values. Unless the actual cell contents are deleted, the "" will remain, although unseen of course.

Regards

 

[pgc01]

ADVERTISEMENT

What's the key factor to make cell both "A" and "BLANK"?

XOR Xl already answered, this is just another way to put it:

A cell both "A" and "BLANK" when it is type text and has no characters.

So, if

=ISTEXT(A1) is True
and
=LEN(A1) is zero

then the cell is both "A" and "BLANK"


Remark: the word blank is a bad word in excel. It is ambiguous.

 

[XOR LX]

Remark: the word blank is a bad word in excel. It is ambiguous.

Indeed!

 

[Jaymond Flurrie]

Thanks to both of you, this solves my problem!

 

[pgc01]

I'm glad it helped.

Remember to run away from the word Blank. If instead of CountBlank() you were using IsBlank() then Blank would have another meaning.