How to count the number of words in a cell or a range cells in Excel?
You can easily count the number of words in MS Word, but Excel doesn't have a built-in tool for counting the number of words in a worksheet. However, you can count the number of words in Excel with following methods:
Count number of words with formula
Count number of words in a single cell with User Defined Functions
Count number of words in specified range with VBA code
Easily count the number of words with Kutools for Excel (several clicks)
Count the number of words with formula
Here are two formulas for you to count words in a single cell and in a range cells.
Count words in a single cell
Please enter this formula =IF(LEN(TRIM(A2))=0,0,LEN(TRIM(A2))-LEN(SUBSTITUTE(A2," ",""))+1) into the Formula Bar, and then press the Enter key.
Note: In the formula, A2 is the cell you will count number of words inside.
You can see the result as below screenshot shown:
Count words in a range of cells with array formula
If you want to count the words in a range of cells, please enter formula =SUM(IF(LEN(TRIM(A2:A3))=0,0,LEN(TRIM(A2:A3))-LEN(SUBSTITUTE(A2:A3," ",""))+1)) into the formula bar, and then press the Shift + Ctrl + Enter keys simultaneously to get the result. See screenshot:
Note: A2:A3 is the range with words you will count.
Easily count total words in a cell or a range of cells in Excel:
The Count Total Words utility of Kutools for Excel can help you quickly count total words in a cell or a range of cells in Excel as the below demo shown.
Download and try it now! (
30-day free trail)
Count the number of words with User Defined Functions
Also, you can count the words in a cell with the User Defined Functions, please do as follows:
1. Press Alt + F11 keys together to open the Microsoft Visual Basic for applications window.
2. In the winodw, click Insert > Module, then copy and paste below VBA code into the Module. See screenshot:
VBA code: Count number of words in a cell.
Function intWordCount(rng As Range) As Integer 'Update by Extendoffice 2018/3/7 intWordCount = UBound(Split(Application.WorksheetFunction.Trim(rng.Value), " "), 1) + 1 End Function
2. Press the Alt + Q keys to close the Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications winodw. Select a blank cell in your worksheet, enter formula “=intwordcount(A2)” into the Formula Bar, and then press the Enter key to get the result. See screenshot:
Note: In the formula, A2 is the cell you will count number of words inside.
If you want to count number of words in a certain range, please apply the following method.
Count number of words in specified range with VBA code
The following VBA code can help you quickly count number of words in a specified range.
1. Press Alt + F11 keys together to open the Microsoft Visual Basic for applications window.
2. In the winodw, click Insert > Module, then copy and paste below VBA code into the Module. See screenshot:
VBA code: Count number of words in selected range.
Sub CountWords() Dim xRg As Range Dim xRgEach As Range Dim xAddress As String Dim xRgVal As String Dim xRgNum As Long Dim xNum As Long On Error Resume Next xAddress = ActiveWindow.RangeSelection.Address Set xRg = Application.InputBox("Please select a range:", "Kutools For Excel", xAddress, , , , , 8) If xRg Is Nothing Then Exit Sub Application.ScreenUpdating = False If Application.WorksheetFunction.CountBlank(xRg) = xRg.Count Then MsgBox "Words In Selection Is: 0", vbInformation, "Kutools For Excel" Exit Sub End If For Each xRgEach In xRg xRgVal = xRgEach.Value xRgVal = Application.WorksheetFunction.Trim(xRgVal) If xRgEach.Value <> "" Then xNum = Len(xRgVal) - Len(Replace(xRgVal, " ", "")) + 1 xRgNum = xRgNum + xNum End If Next xRgEach MsgBox "Words In Selection Is: " & Format(xRgNum, "#,##0"), vbOKOnly, "Kutools For Excel" Application.ScreenUpdating = True End Sub
3. Press the F5 key to run the code. In the popping up Kutools for Excel dialog box, please select the range you will count number of words inside, and then click the OK button. See screenshot:
Then another Kutools for Excel dialog box pops up to show you the total number of words in seleted range. See screenshot:
Count the number of words with Kutools for Excel (only clicks)
You can try the Count words in range utility of Kutools for Excel to easily count number of words in a cell or a range with only several clicks.
Before applying Kutools for Excel, please download and install it firstly.
1. Select a cell for returning the result, then click Kutools > Formula Helper > Formula Helper.
2. In the Formulas Helper dialog box, please configure as follows.
- In the Choose a formula box, select Count total words;
Tips: You can check the Filter box, enter a key word to quickly filter the formula as you need. - In the Range box, specify the cell or range in which you want to count total words;
- Click the OK button. See screenshot:
Then you will get the number of words in a specified cell or range.
If you want to have a free trial ( 30-day) of this utility, please click to download it, and then go to apply the operation according above steps.
Easily count the number of words with Kutools for Excel
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