=COUNTA(A1:A1000)

That'll count all cells that contain anything including cells with formula
blanks "".

To exclude cells with formula blanks:

=SUMPRODUCT(--(A1:A1000<""))

Biff

"alm09" wrote in message
...
I need to count how many cells in a rather larger range are populated (i.e
not blank). I am using the formula: COUNTIF(range, < "") but get an
error.

How would I write this formula?