Ignore my previous post... I quite stupidly replaced the X with a 2 in the
data column's formula and left the rest of it alone when I tested Biff's
formula; however, I left the surrounding quote marks so the 2 was encased in
quotes when I tested Biff's formula (that is, the 2 was a text 2, not a
numerical 2, hence his formula appeared to work with numbers when in reality
it doesn't).

Rick


"Rick Rothstein (MVP - VB)" wrote in
message ...
Biff's formula worked for me with either text or numbers. What formula are
you using in your cells (I'd like to see why you are saying it doesn't
work for you)?

Rick


"Jakobshavn Isbrae" wrote in
message ...
Thank you very much for taking the time to offer help. The formula seems
to
ignore numbers.
--
jake


"T. Valko" wrote:

Try this:

=COUNTIF(A1:A10,"?*")

--
Biff
Microsoft Excel MVP


"Rick Rothstein (MVP - VB)" wrote
in
message ...
I put this formula in A1...

=IF(MOD(ROW(A1),3),"X","")

and copied it down to A10. On my copy of XL2003, your formula, as well
as
the other formulas that were posted (except for mine, of course<g),
returns 10 instead of 7 meaning it counted the blank (looking) cells
as
well as the non-blank looking ones.

Rick


"Pete_UK" wrote in message
...
Try using COUNTIF, i.e.:

=COUNTIF(A:A,"<")

will count everything in column A which is not blank (or appears to be
blank, like a formula returning "")

Hope this helps.

Pete

On Jun 22, 4:16 pm, Jakobshavn Isbrae
wrote:
How can I count the number of items in a column whose length exceeds
zero?
--
jake