Excel bug in COUNTA (97)

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Kieran is there supposed to be an attachment for us to look at?

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I have recently changed jobs and am trying to get my head around the acronyms used.

I have therefore created a list of them (abbreviated list attached)

The list works fine, however it seems that the COUNTA function does not.

As you will see the ranges B2 and C2 count the numbers of acroynms and descriptions in the list.
The B2 count is fine, however the C2 count is understated by twice the number of blank entries.

COUNTIF(range,””) does return the correct figure as does the ‘instant’ count function in the information bar at the base of the applcation.

Can anyone enlighten me about why Excel can’t count using COUNTA?

TIA.

Sorry about the lost attachment – maybe I wil have better luck this time

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You seem to have lost the attachment. If you go to Preview you have to reselect the file attach before posting.

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Kieran

Sorry the COUNTA function is performing properly.

The named range ‘Acronym_description’ is described as:
=OFFSET(‘Acronym List’!$C$7,0,0,COUNTA(‘Acronym List’!$C$7:$C$403),1)

The argument ‘COUNTA(‘Acronym List’!$C$7:$C$403)’ returns the value 8, which is correct, but when used as the height argument to the offset function, the range returned is c7:c14. Then the function =COUNTA(c7:C14) returning 6 is correct.

Replacing the concent of cell C2 with: =COUNTA($C7:$c403)&” Described so far”
produces the desired results.

Good luck,
Bob_D

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Thanks Bob.

It seems obvious now that it is expained to me, however I don’t think that I would have seen the light without your advice.

I will update the named range definition as it could cause the lookup function at the top of the sheet to produce bad results too.

Thanks again.

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