How to count if cells are nonblank and not equal to specific word in Excel?

In this case, you need to count the number of the cells which are nonempty and not equal to a specific word in Excel. Take instance, you have to count the number of cells which are nonempty and not equal to Yes in range A1:E9 as below screenshot shown. The general COUNTIF formula counts the cells not equal to Yes, but the counting result doesn’t exclude the blank cells. Now this tutorial introduces other tricks to quickly count the cells which both are nonblank and not equal to a specific word in Excel.

Countif nonblank and not equal to specific word cells with formula

Countif and identify nonblank and not equal to specific word cells with Select Specific Cells

Countif nonblank and not equal to specific word cells with formula

Here I tell you a combined COUNTIF formula to count cells.

Select a blank cell and type this formula =COUNTIF(A1:E9,"<>YES")-COUNTBLANK(A1:E9) (in this formula, A1: E9 is the range you want to count cells, and YES is the criteria, you can change them as you need), press Enter key, now the correct counting result excluding blank cell is got:

Countif and identify nonblank and not equal to specific word cells with Select Specific Cells

If you not only want to count the number of cells which are nonblank and not equal to a specific word, but also want to identify the cells, you can use Kutools for Excel’s Select Specific Cells utility.

After free installing Kutools for Excel, please do as below:

1. Select the data range needed to be count and click Kutools > Select > Select Specific Cells. See screenshot:

2. In the Select Specific Cells dialog, select Cell in Selection type section, select Does not equal from Specific type list, and type Yes into the next textbox. See screenshot:

3. Click Ok, and a dialog pops out to tell you the counting result. Click OK. Now the cells meeting the criteria are selected at once. See screenshots: