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Unit 5 - 9. When To Use Count Vs Sum Vs Counta Vs Countblank Vs Countif

The document explains the differences between Excel functions COUNT, SUM, COUNTA, COUNTBLANK, and COUNTIF. SUM calculates the total of numeric values, while COUNT determines how many cells contain numbers. COUNTA counts all non-blank cells, COUNTBLANK counts blank cells, and COUNTIF counts cells that meet specific criteria.

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3 views3 pages

Unit 5 - 9. When To Use Count Vs Sum Vs Counta Vs Countblank Vs Countif

The document explains the differences between Excel functions COUNT, SUM, COUNTA, COUNTBLANK, and COUNTIF. SUM calculates the total of numeric values, while COUNT determines how many cells contain numbers. COUNTA counts all non-blank cells, COUNTBLANK counts blank cells, and COUNTIF counts cells that meet specific criteria.

Uploaded by

bencatim
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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When to use COUNT vs SUM vs

COUNTA vs COUNTBLANK vs
COUNTIF
1. What is the difference between SUM and
COUNT?
Very simply, SUM calculates a total for a number of cells or values, so it’s answering
the question: HOW MUCH? Or, WHAT IS THE TOTAL?
COUNT tells you HOW MANY cells meet a certain condition.
Consider the following data:

Figure 01: SUM vs COUNT

Cell A6 uses a SUM function to add up the values in cells A1 to A5.


Cell C6 uses a COUNT function to find how many cells in the range C1 to C5 contain
numbers. The COUNT function ignores blank cells or cells that contain text or symbols.

2. Introducing COUNTA, COUNTBLANK and


COUNTIF
There are number of other functions available in Excel. Heres a quick summary of what
they do, followed by an example of each.

• COUNT counts how many cells in a range contain numeric data (numbers).
• COUNTA counts how many populated cells in a range (i.e. not blank).
• COUNTBLANK counts how many blank cells in a range.
• COUNTIF counts how many cells in a range meet a certain condition.
Consider the following data:

Figure 02: Sales made by the sales team

Here’s the results for each formula:

=COUNT(B2:B11)

Answer = 5.

=COUNTA(B2:B11)

Answer = 7.

=COUNTBLANK(B2:B11)

Answer = 3.
There is no single function that tells you the number of text cells but you can work it out
with this formula:

=COUNTA(B2:B11) - COUNT(B2:B11)

3. The COUNTIF function


To demonstrate the COUNTIF function, consider the following data:
Figure 03: A table showing stats for some trades people

The COUNTIF function needs 2 bits of information - the range of cells you are
looking at and what it is that you’re checking for. The criteria is always
encapsulated in double quotation marks (“) and is not case sensitive.

To find how many tradespeople drive a Toyota:

=COUNTIF(C2:C23,"Toyota")

To find how many plumbers there are:

=COUNTIF(D2:D23,"Plumber")

To find how many tradespeople charge more than $70 per hour:

=COUNTIF(E2:E23,">70")

To find how many of the tradesmen’s names start in the last half of the alphabet:

=COUNTIF(B2:B23,">M")

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