If you select a blank cell and type
=COUNTA
and then hit Ctrl+A. The dialog box that appears may help you understand.
Type anything in the Value1 box, and the result at the bottom will be 1.
Type anything in the Value2 box, and the result will be 2, etc. etc.

Post the results you were hoping for from your examples.

Andy.

"pete the greek" wrote in message
...
hi andy

the number 2 appears 5 times but the value 2 doesnt actually appear at
all
also the word two isnt in the list so it cant count it /// confusing or
what



"Andy" wrote:

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)