Count Survey Responses with COUNT and COUNTA
Your task: In E2:E5, count the customers surveyed, ratings received, missing ratings and comments written.
Full instructions, scenario and goal
Scenario
A cafe chain sent a short satisfaction survey to eight customers. Each customer may have given a rating from 1 to 5 and may have left a comment. You need four figures for the weekly report, and they must still be right when more answers arrive.
Your task
- In E2, count how many customers were surveyed (every row has a name).
- In E3, count how many ratings were received (cells that hold a number).
- In E4, count how many ratings are missing (empty cells in the rating column).
- In E5, count how many customers wrote a comment.
- Use the whole data range in each formula (rows 2 to 9), then select Check Answer.
You are done when
- Each figure is a formula over the full range of rows 2 to 9.
- The counts stay right if answers are added, removed, or typed as text.
What you will practise
Choose between COUNT, COUNTA and COUNTBLANK depending on whether you are counting numbers, filled cells or empty cells.
The idea in 30 seconds
Excel has three everyday counting functions, and they count different things. COUNT counts the cells that contain a number (dates count as numbers). COUNTA counts every cell that is not empty, whether it holds a number, text or a formula result. COUNTBLANK counts the cells that are empty. Picking the wrong one is one of the most common spreadsheet errors, because the formula still returns a number, just the wrong one.
Spreadsheet
Loading spreadsheet…
Keyboard shortcuts
- Arrow keys
- Move between cells
- Shift + Arrow keys, or drag with the mouse
- Select a range
- Ctrl + Arrow keys
- Jump to the edge of a block of data
- Type, or F2, or double-click
- Edit a cell (F2 switches arrow keys between moving and editing)
- Click or arrow keys inside a formula
- Insert a cell reference after =, +, (, comma and similar
- F4
- Cycle a reference through A1, $A$1, A$1, $A1
- Enter / Tab while editing
- Confirm and move down / right (Shift reverses)
- Esc
- Cancel the edit
- Ctrl + C / X / V
- Copy, cut and paste (formulas adjust like in Excel)
- Delete
- Clear the selected cells
- Ctrl + Z / Ctrl + Y
- Undo and redo
- Ctrl + Enter
- Check your answer
- Tab when not editing
- Leave the spreadsheet
Type your answer in cell E2. Click a cell and type. Enter confirms, Esc cancels, Ctrl+Enter checks your answer.Tap a highlighted cell to type in it, then tap the green tick to confirm. Scroll the sheet sideways if it is wider than your screen.
New here? How an exercise works
- Read the task. Highlighted cells are yours to fill in; the rest are locked.
- Select (or tap) a highlighted cell and type a formula. It starts with =, like =A1+B1.
- Press Check answer. Stuck? Reveal hints one at a time.
The full explanation: the idea behind this exercise
Excel has three everyday counting functions, and they count different things. COUNT counts the cells that contain a number (dates count as numbers). COUNTA counts every cell that is not empty, whether it holds a number, text or a formula result. COUNTBLANK counts the cells that are empty. Picking the wrong one is one of the most common spreadsheet errors, because the formula still returns a number, just the wrong one.
A quick rule: if you are counting people, products or comments (text), use COUNTA; if you are counting measurements or scores, use COUNT; if you are looking for gaps, use COUNTBLANK. The functions also behave well when the data changes: a ratings column with a new answer typed in simply counts one more. Text typed into a number column, such as "n/a", is not a number, so COUNT skips it while COUNTA still counts it.
Skills you will practise
- COUNT
- COUNTA
- COUNTBLANK
Complete first: Total, Average and Highest Monthly Spend
Common mistakes to avoid
- Using COUNT on text
- COUNT only sees numbers, so counting names or comments with it returns 0.
- Using COUNTA for numeric scores
- COUNTA also counts a typed "n/a" or a space, so it can overcount real ratings.