How to Count Characters in Google Sheets (3 Examples)


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:

count characters in Google Sheets

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.

Note: The LEN() function will also count any blank spaces in the cell.

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:

count specific characters in R

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.

Additional Resources

The following tutorials explain how to perform other common operations in Google Sheets:

Google Sheets: How to Use COUNTIF From Another Sheet
Google Sheets: How to Use COUNTIF with Multiple Ranges
Google Sheets: How to Use COUNTIFS with a Date Range

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