Microsoft KB Archive/161757

= XL97: Countif Function May Not Work with Blank Cells =

Article ID: 161757

Article Last Modified on 10/22/2000

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APPLIES TO


 * Microsoft Excel 97 Standard Edition

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This article was previously published under Q161757



SYMPTOMS
The worksheet function Countif may return an incorrect result when the criteria is set to blank ("").



CAUSE
The Countif function takes two arguments: the range and the criteria. If the criteria is specified to be blank (""), the Countif function may return an incorrect result. Other criteria will return the correct result.

For example, if cell A1 has the formula

=Countif(B1:B2,"")

the result in cell A1 may be 0 even if both B1 and B2 are blank.

If data was previously placed into cells B1 and B2 and then deleted or erased, the Countif function returns the correct value.



WORKAROUND
To calculate the number of blank cells in a range, use the Countblank function instead of the Countif function. The Countblank function will return the correct value of blank cells in a given range.

For example, the following formula will return the count of blank cells in the range A1:A10:

=COUNTBLANK(A1:A10)



STATUS
Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in the Microsoft products listed at the beginning of this article.



MORE INFORMATION
