Jakobshavn Isbrae
wrote...
How can I count the number of items in a column whose length exceeds zero?

Most efficient,

=ROWS(Range)*COLUMNS(Range)-COUNTBLANK(Range)

This will count every cell except truly blank cells (in the ISBLANK
sense) and cells evaluating to "". If you want to count only text
cells with 1 or more characters and cells containing numbers, try

=COUNT(Range)+COUNTIF(Range,"?*")