Hi

Your last two formulae are counting the number of non-blanks (6) and also
the number 2 (or the word "two") - giving a total of 7

Andy.

"pete the greek" wrote in message
...
in help there are examples for counta

i can see what is happening when it just has 1 value ie:
a range as in the first two examples

but cant see what is happening in the third ex

a1:a6 is 6 non blanks

there are five "2" but the result is 7 not 11


A
1 Data
2 Sales
3 12/8/2008
4
4 19
6 22.24
7 TRUE
8 #DIV/0!

Formula Description (Result)
=COUNTA(A2:A8) Counts the number of nonblank cells in the list above (6)
=COUNTA(A5:A8) Counts the number of nonblank cells in the last 4 rows of
the
list (4)
=COUNTA(A1:A7,2) Counts the number of nonblank cells in the list above and
the value 2 (7)
=COUNTA(A1:A7,"Two") Counts the number of nonblank cells in the list above
and the value "Two" (7)