Text & Cleanup

Excel formula for Count characters in a cell

Count how many characters (including spaces) a cell contains.

Copy this formula

=LEN(A2)

How the formula works

LEN returns the length of the text in a cell, counting letters, numbers, punctuation, and spaces. It's handy for validating IDs, tweets, or fixed-length codes.

Examples

=LEN("Hello")→5

Five characters.

Other ways to do this

Count without spaces

=LEN(SUBSTITUTE(A2, " ", ""))

Removes spaces before counting.

FAQ

How do I count a specific character?

Subtract lengths: =LEN(A2)-LEN(SUBSTITUTE(A2, ",", "")) counts commas.

Related formulas

Count words in a cell Find the position of a character

Functions used

LEN SUBSTITUTE

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