Google Sheets is a powerful web-based spreadsheet app that enables you to analyze and organize data in different cells.

Luckily, Google Sheets has a function that is intended exactly for that purpose.

Frankly, COUNTBLANK doesn’t care about the looks of a cell.

Sample spreadsheet in Google Sheets

With that in mind, let’s count some blank cells in Google Sheets with COUNTBLANK.

You feed it a range of cells, and it returns the number of blank cells.

The goal here is to count the number of volunteers who didn’t partake in the examination.

COUNTBLANK in Google Sheets

Since you’re familiar with COUNTBLANK, the path ahead should be clear.

COUNTBLANK will now give you the count of volunteers who didn’t partake in the examination.

But that’s not all that there is to COUNTBLANK.

Sample spreadsheet in Excel

There are virtually infinite ways to harness the synergy of compound formulas in Google Sheets.

One such example, although a humble one, lies below.

To achieve this, we’re going to use COUNTBLANK, COUNTA, and IF all in one formula.

COUNTBLANK used in Google Sheets

You’re already familiar with this one!

This function is essentially the opposite of COUNTBLANK, as COUNTA counts the non-blank cells in a range.

We’re going touse COUNTA to get the count of non-blank cells, i.e.

volunteers who did partake in the examination.

This is perhaps the most used function in compound formulas.

With these three functions in mind, the formula that we need is already taking shape.

If this expression is true, then a second examination should take place.

If it’s false, then a second examination shouldn’t take place (IF).

Leave the Headcount to Google Sheets

Google Sheets is a powerful data analysis and manipulation tool.

COUNTBLANK is a simple Google Sheets function that serves a sole purpose: to count blank cells.

In some scenarios, the number of blank cells in a range might just be what you need.

Whichever it is, you’ll find COUNTBLANK a reliable function that excels at its purpose.