Counting blank cells between non-blank cells

[AndyH]

Does anyone know a simple way to count the number of blank cells between
non-blank cells? I have a column of data that in some cases has from zero to
five blank cells between non-blank ones. If there are not two blank cells
between the non-blank ones, it is an indication of a potential coding error
within the data source. I'm looking for an easy way to do my data scrub.

Any ideas would be helpful.

Thanks.

 

[Teethless mama]

=COUNTBLANK(A1:A10)

 

[Gary''s Student]

=COUNTBLANK(A5:A11)
or
=1-ROW(A5)+ROW(A11)-COUNTA(A5:A11)

de3pending upon whether you want to count blanks or empties

 

[Bernie Deitrick]

Andy,

Try

=IF(SUMPRODUCT((A2:A101="")*(A3:A102<>"")*(A1:A100<>""))>0,"Coding error","All OK")

Note the slight offsets of the ranges...

HTH,
Bernie
MS Excel MVP

 

[Shane Devenshire]

Hi,

If you just want to be alerted to the fact that two consecutive cells are
blank why not try conditional formatting:

1. Select all the data in a column, suppose its A2:A1000, and choose Format,
Condtional Formatting, from the first drop down pick Formula is and in the
second box enter the formula

=OR(AND(A2="",A1=""),AND(A2="",A3=""))

Click the Format button and choose a color on the patterns tab

If this helps, please click the Yes button

Cheers,
Shane Devenshire