How to Count Until a Blank Row in Google Sheets

Counting Made Easy

Have you ever found yourself needing to identify the first blank row in a data range? Well, fear not! With the help of ROW, MIN, and COUNT functions in Google Sheets, you can easily achieve this task. Let me walk you through the formula and the explanation behind it.

Here’s an example: let’s say you want to count the cells in Column G until you reach a blank cell. In the given range of G2:G10, the formula in cell H2 returns the value 5. Once a blank cell is encountered, the counting stops. Easy peasy, right?

How to Count Until a Blank Cell in Google Sheets

Formula Explanation

Now, let’s break down the formula step by step, so you can understand how it works. If you use the formula =ArrayFormula(ROW(G2:G10)), it will return the row numbers from 2 to 10, as the cell reference starts from the second row.

But wait, we want the numbering to start from 1, like a serial number. To achieve this, we can modify the formula as follows: =ArrayFormula(ROW(G2:G10)-ROW(G2)+1.

Now, let’s apply a logical test. The purpose of this test is to only return serial numbers when the cells are blank. Using an IF formula, we can accomplish this. When the condition is not fulfilled, the formula will return the Boolean FALSE.

Here’s the formula: =ArrayFormula(IF(G2:G10="",ROW(G2:G10)-ROW(G2)+1))

Take a look at the screenshot below:

Only number cells that are blank in Google Sheets

Now, when we apply the MIN function to this range, it will return the value 6. This value represents the serial number of the blank cell. By subtracting 1 from this value, we can obtain the count of cells that contain values.

The final formula will look like this: =ArrayFormula(MIN(IF(G2:G10="",ROW(G2:G10)-ROW(G2)+1))-1)

That’s it! You’re now equipped with the knowledge of how to count until a blank row in Google Sheets. I hope this concept is crystal clear, but if you have any doubts, feel free to drop a comment. Enjoy exploring the wonderful world of Google Sheets!