In a spreadsheet, which function counts all non-empty cells within a specified range?

• A. Sum
• B. Count
• C. CountA
• D. CountIf

Answer: (C)

Counting what’s in a range means tallying cells that have anything in them. The function that counts every non-empty cell is COUNTA. It includes numbers, text, dates, errors, and cells with a formula that returns a value. It does not count cells that are truly empty. A helpful nuance is that if a cell contains a formula that returns an empty string, COUNTA still treats that cell as non-empty. In contrast, SUM adds numeric values, not the count of cells. COUNT only counts cells with numbers, not text or other data. COUNTIF counts cells that meet a specific condition, not all non-empty cells. Therefore, COUNTA is the best fit for counting all non-empty cells in a range.