How to count 'blank' cells in a column.

Khanambano

Hello,

I am trying to count the blank cells in a column and i'm using the ISBLANK formula. however it keeps saying INCORRECT ARGUMENT. the formula works with every other status in the column in my reference sheet but doesn' count the blanks. Please help!

this is the formula im using: =ISBLANK({TEMPO TRADE WORK TRACKING FORM Range 5}, [Column4]@row

EvermoreCoffee

Hi @Khanambano,

It looks like your formula is missing a closing parenthesis; can you add a ')' to the end of {TEMPO TRADE WORK TRACKING FORM Range 5} and test to see if it works?

Should look something like this:

=ISBLANK({TEMPO TRADE WORK TRACKING FORM Range 5})

Also, is the formula being used within another formula? Not sure ISBLANK() works on its own, going off of the documentation on it (https://help.smartsheet.com/function/isblank)

Hope this helps!

Khanambano

hey, Thank you for trying to help.

I actually put the end parenthesis and it still says INCORRECT ARGUMENT.

I also read it works within another formula so i tried =COUNTIF(ISBLANK({TEMPO TRADE WORK TRACKING FORM Range 5}, "Blank")) to no avail.

EvermoreCoffee

Hey @Khanambano,

Can you try this formula out?

=COUNTIF({TEMPO TRADE WORK TRACKING FORM Range 5}, ISBLANK(@cell))

Khanambano

Hey @EvermoreCoffee

The formula you provided actually did return a value of 75 blanks. but two issues:

1) the blank value should be 65 (i filtered the reference sheet to confirm) and

2) it changes all other formulas where i have to get the value of blank cells as well.

for example i am trying to track the progress of multiple Trades on the same metric sheet. when i insert the formula for one, it auto changes the other trades status to as well, when i should be different values. The second chart should say 90

EvermoreCoffee

Hey @Khanambano,

I tested this formula out on a fresh sheet and found that it will count all rows it finds, even if not all rows are being used (example: a new sheet is created and shows the end user 50 rows of blank data; if you count and column on this sheet for blanks, it will return a count of 50. Not sure if this is a bug or not).

As an alternative approach, for your sheet that contains blanks, you could add in a value (something like "--" or similar), then modify the formula to something like this:

=COUNTIF({TEMPO TRADE WORK TRACKING FORM Range 5}, HAS(@cell, "--")).

It's a bit more work that requires blank data to have a value written into it, though might help with more a more precise count.

Hope this helps!