Excel Count Characters in Cell: Easy 4 Methods

In case you are using Excel for showing data in a cool way, you may need some help for counting. If this is your case, excel count characters in cell methods can help you for various situations. In this formula, you can get to learn number of characters in a range. Or, you can calculate the length of a specific word or phrase. Most of time, these are repetitive tasks. And we recommend you to not do it manually but consider below methods.

Understanding excel count characters in cell and count symbols excel

Before we look at methods of counting characters in Excel, we should understand what character counting means. Character counting simply means calculating the number of characters in a cell. This operation actually including spaces, punctuation and other symbols. It is a useful tool for especially formatting your data.

Using len function in excel to count char in excel

The LEN function is the simplest way of counting characters in Excel. It calculates the number of characters in a cell or cell groups including spaces and other symbols. If you wanan use the LEN function, you will enter the following formula into a empty cell.

=LEN(cell)

Then, you will replace cell with the cell you want to count the characters. The result will be the total number of characters in there.

Counting Characters with Len

If you want to count the total number of characters in a cell range, you can use the SUM function in combination with the LEN function. The SUM function will add up the results of this. And it works for each cell in  your cell group. Here’s the formula for doing it.

=SUM(LEN(range))

This time again you will replace range with cell range you want to count. 

Counting Specific Characters: how to count char in excel

If you want to count specific character, then, you can use the SUBSTITUTE function for this specific task. The SUBSTITUTE function replaces a specific character with a blank space first. And then, it calculates the difference between original text and the text with the character you deleted. 

=LEN(cell)-LEN(SUBSTITUTE(cell,"character",""))

You should change the cell with the one you want to count the specific character. While you should write specific character you want to count in character section. The result will be the number of times the specific character in cells.

• Here, you can easily apply LEN function to count all characters in cells. Characters, digits, letters and all spaces are counted. For instance, in a sentence like It’s 98 degrees today, so I’ll go swimming” is 42 characters long (not including quotations). And it consists of 31 letters, 2 digits, 8 spaces, a comma and 2 apostrophes.

Counting Words

If you want to count the number of words then, you can use the following formula for it.

=IF(TRIM(cell)="","",LEN(cell)-LEN(SUBSTITUTE(cell," ",""))+1)

Cell will be the cell you wanna count the words. The formula first removes any leading or trailing spaces from the cell using the TRIM function. After that, it calculates the number of spaces in the cell using the SUBSTITUTE function. And in this formula, it adds 1 to the result. So, you can get the total number of words.

Tips for Count characters in one cell

1. You can use the AutoSum function to quickly add up the results of the LEN function or other functions.
2. ALso, you should be attentive when using the SUBSTITUTE function to count specific characters. Because it may also remove other characters you would not count.
3. When counting words, hyphenated words and words with punctuation marks can work as separate words.
4. If you need counting characters in a cell, you can use Formula Bar in simplest way. So, you can see the total number of characters in there.
5. Lastly, you can also use conditional formatting to highlight cells that contain a certain number of characters or words.

Conclusion

Counting characters may seem simple at first. And you can consider doing it by eye. But when you get tons of columns, it will not work. And it can help you validate and format data. With the functions here in this guide, you should easily learn to count characters in Excel.

FAQs

1. Can I count characters in a cell without using a formula? Yes, you can see the total number of characters in a cell by selecting the cell and looking at the Formula Bar.
2. How to count the number of characters in a cell that includes formulas? Yes, the LEN function will count the total number of characters in a cell. This is including any formulas.
3. How to easily count the number of words in a cell range? For this, you can apply SUM function in combination with the formula for counting words. So, you will count the total number of words in any cell group.
4. What about counting them for data validation? In this case, char counting can work for you see if you met certain length or format. And it is also possible to use it with conditional formatting to highlight cells that do not meet certain criteria.
5. Can I count the number of characters in a cell that contains both text and numbers? Yes, the LEN function will count the total number of characters in a cell. And this action will be including any text and numbers.
6. Can we count cells with emojis or special characters? Here again LEN function will count the total number of characters in a cell. This counting process will include any emojis or special characters.

If wanna get better at Excel charts, you can read How to Control Charts in Excel: A Comprehensive Guide.