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.
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:
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
