In that case, the counta function is what you want. so, =counta(A:A) will
return the number of cells in coluimn A with characters in them. If you have
numbers and letters in a column, and only want to count the number of cells
without numbers, then try =counta(A:A)-count(A:A)

"sdmccabe" wrote:

I guess I am saying count the number of cells occupied by characters (not
numbers) in a given column.

"daddylonglegs" wrote:

Not sure what you mean but COUNT only counts numbers, try COUNTA

"sdmccabe" wrote:

I want to get a total (count) of a column of non-numeric characters €“ each
time I use the auto sum feature and select count, the cursor is placed on the
first cell of the column waiting for a formula. What am I doing wrong?