How to count total characters in a range in Excel

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If you want to count the total characters in a range of cells, you can do with a formula that uses LEN, along with the SUMPRODUCT function.

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Formula

=SUMPRODUCT(LEN(rng))

Explanation

In the example, the active cell contains this formula:

=SUMPRODUCT(LEN(B3:B6))

Here’s how the formula works:

SUMPRODUCT accepts the range B3:B6 as an array of four cells. For each cell in the array, LEN calculates the length of the text as a number. The result is an array that contains 4 numbers. SUMPRODUCT then sums the items in this array and returns the total.

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