In article ,
"Harlan Grove" wrote:

Although, A1 doesn't necessarily need to be blank. It could contain a
header, which in all likelihood would be the case, and wouldn't affect
the result.
...

It would affect the result if it just happened to match any of the items
below it. Improbable, but the nastiest bugs arise from improbable
situations.

While I usually try to eliminate any risk, the risk here is so remote
that I don't see it as an issue.

Also, I carried out an informal test to compare the re-calculation speed
between your solution and mine. Here's what I did...

1) used separate workbooks for each solution

2) expanded the range to A2:A10000

3) copied the relevant formulas down to row 10,000

The results surprised me on two counts...

1) With regards to my solution alone, I was surprised with the time it
took to copy the formulas down to row 10,000 and the difference in
re-calculation speed (about 10 seconds).

2) With regards to the two solutions, I was surprised to see that there
didn't seem to be any difference in re-calculation speed. Both took
about 10 seconds.

Maybe the results would be different if the range was expanded to
A2:A65535 and formulas copied down as well.

Since there doesn't seem to be any real difference between the two
solutions, I think I'll stick with mine. :)