In Google Sheets, there is a specific function that you can use to count characters from a cell and a formula to count characters from multiple cells or a range of cells. And in this tutorial, we will learn to use these functions and formulas.
Count Characters from a Single Cell
- Enter =LEN function in a cell.
- Type the starting parentheses.
- Refer to the cell from where you want to count the characters.
- In the end, type the closing parentheses and then hit enter to get the count of characters from cell A1.
=LEN(A1)In the above example, you can see that we have a string in cell A1. And when you use the LEN function, it returns 11 in the result. That means in cell A1, we have 11 characters.
- Sheets = 6
- Space = 1
- Mojo = 4
Get Character Count from Multiple Cells/Range
And if you want to get the count of characters from a range or multiple cells, you need to combine the LEN function with SUM and ARRAYFORMULA.
To write this formula, you need to count the function, refer to the entire range in the LEN, and then wrap it with the SUM and ARRAYFORMULA.
=ARRAYFORMULA(SUM(LEN(A1:A3)))
In the above example, we referred to the range A1:A3; as I said earlier, we have wrapped it with SUM and the ARRAYFORMULA.
To understand this formula, you need to split it into two parts.
- In the first part, we have wrapped the entire formula with the ARRAYFORMULA, making it work with an array of cells instead of a single cell.
- And when you use LEN, it returns three counts as we have three cells in the range, and that’s why we have also used SUM to sum these three counts to get the count of characters for the entire range.
