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To count the number of characters in a cell in Google Sheets, you can use the LEN function. This function will count the number of characters in a cell, including spaces. You may also need to use the TRIM function to remove any spaces that may be at the start or end of a cell before using the LEN function. To use the LEN function, type =LEN(cell name) into the cell you wish to display the character count in. The cell name should be the cell you wish to count the characters in. This will then display the number of characters in the cell.
You can use the following three methods to count characters in Google Sheets:
Method 1: Count Total Characters in Cell
=LEN(A2)
Method 2: Count Total Characters in Column
=SUMPRODUCT(LEN(A2:A11))
Method 3: Count Specific Characters in Cell
=LEN(A2)- LEN(SUBSTITUTE(UPPER(A2),"R",""))
The following examples show how to use each method with the following dataset in Google Sheets:
Example 1: Count Total Characters in Cell
We can use the following formula to count the total number of characters in cell A2:
=LEN(A2)
We can then copy and paste this formula down to each remaining cell in column A to count the total number of characters in each cell:
From the output we can see:
- The team “Mavericks” contains 9 total characters
- The team “Warriors” contains 8 total characters
- The team “Heat” contains 4 total characters
And so on.
Example 2: Count Total Characters in Column
We can use the following formula to count the total number of characters in the cell range A2:A11:
=SUMPRODUCT(LEN(A2:A11))
The following screenshot shows how to use this formula in practice:
From the output we can see that there are 63 total characters in column A.
Example 3: Count Specific Characters in Cell
We can use the following formula to count the total number of characters equal to “R” in cell A2:
=LEN(A2)- LEN(SUBSTITUTE(UPPER(A2),"R",""))
We can then copy and paste this formula down to each remaining cell in column A to count the total number of characters equal to “R” in each cell:
From the output we can see:
- There is 1 “R” character in cell A2.
- There are 3 “R” characters in cell A3.
- There are 0 “R” characters in cell A4.
And so on.
The following tutorials explain how to perform other common operations in Google Sheets: