In the below example, I have used the LEN function to count letters in a cell. LEN counts the number of characters in text, including space and punctuation, and returns a number as the result. By signing up, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. For example, the following formula calculates the length of a text string contained in cell A1. For more information about working with VBA, select Developer Reference in the drop-down list next to Search and enter one or more terms in the search box. The LEN function in Excel is also known as the LENGTH Excel function, which identifies the length of a given string. The Excel LEN function returns the length of a given text string as the number of characters. Excel RIGHT function not working - reasons and solutions If a Right formula does not work right in your worksheet, most likely it's because of one of the following reasons: There is one or more trailing spaces in the original data. If you wish to use this formula yourself, replace the cell reference with your own. The LEN is returning. LEN will also count characters in numbers, but number formatting is not included. Using the function wizard, in cell B1 I have entered =LEN (A1), but the function does not calculate the number "19" Instead, when I enter it, B1 just displays the function as text, i.e. One of the things that can have a devastating effect on your existing formulas in Excel is when you delete any row/column which has been used in calculations. The text whose length you want to find. Return value Number of characters Arguments text - The text for which to calculate length. LEN returns the count of characters in a text string: Space characters are included in the count: LEN also works with numeric values, but number formatting is not included: The LEN function often appears in other formulas that manipulate text in some way. Now I will explain the huge benefit of the LEN function when you want to compare two similar sets of data sets. We have two similar values in cells A1 and B1, and we need to compare whether both are the same. Discover your next role with the interactive map. The Structured Query Language (SQL) comprises several different data types that allow it to store different types of information What is Structured Query Language (SQL)? CFA And Chartered Financial Analyst Are Registered Trademarks Owned By CFA Institute. You can read more about absolute, relative, and mixed references here. This happens because I havent locked the table array argument its A2:B6 in cell F2, while it should have been $A$2:$B$6, By having these dollar signs before the row number and column alphabet in a cell reference, I am forcing Excel to keep these cell references fixed. As already mentioned, the Excel LEN function counts absolutely all characters in a specified cell, including all spaces - leading, trailing spaces, and spaces between words. We create short videos, and clear examples of formulas, functions, pivot tables, conditional formatting, and charts. How to Use LEN Function in Excel? - EduCBA I will get the same answer. You can refer to only one cell at a time. As I said, the formula is not giving the wrong result. In the New Formatting Rule dialog, click "Use a formula to determine which cells to format". Cells Formatted as Text You must have JavaScript enabled to use this form. When a cell is formatted as text, it considers the formula as a text string and shows it as is. LENB counts 2 bytes per character only when a DBCS language is set as the default language. worksheetfunction.SUM works worksheetfunction.COUNT works another example: Sub LEN () msgbox worksheetfunction.Len (ActiveCell) End Sub this wont work. I often have to use files with EAN-codes in it. This is not a case of formula giving you the wrong result but of using the wrong formula. The languages that support DBCS include Japanese, Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), and Korean. error in the cells. For example, if you enter 0001 in a cell, Excel will change it to 1. The xxx function syntax has the following arguments: TextRequired. You can do this by using any of the following methods: In the above example, you can use the below formula instead to make sure it works. For example, in the below example, if I try to use VLOOKUP to fetch the score for Mark, it gives me the #N/A error (the not available error). Syntax =LEN (text) Usage notes For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding. After applying the Len formula, the result is shown below. For example, suppose you have a dataset as shown below and I want to get the sum of all the visible cells in column C. In cell C12, I have used the SUM function to get the total sale value for all these given records. These are some of the common causes that I have seen where your Excel formulas may not work or give unexpected or wrong results. To quickly remove extra spaces in cells, use either the Excel TRIM function or the Cell Cleaner add-in. Copyright 2023 . And in some cases, its recommended to uses parenthesis to make sure the formula understands what needs to be grouped and calculated first. It doesn't even list LEN as a function in VBA. I'm having a strange issue here with Excel. Below is the formula that I use in cell F2 and then copies to all the cells below it: As you can see that this formula gives an error in some cases. While I have taken the VLOOKUP example, this is also a common issue when working with TEXT functions. You will probably have to re-enter the formula. SUM function can not account for the filtered data and give you the result for all the cells (hidden or visible). Length of the third string, which includes eight spaces. The End of the first name. The LEN function in Excel can count the number of characters in a text string and count letters, numbers, special characters, non-printable characters, and all spaces from an Excel cell. To give you an example, lets assume that an Excel workbook contains a cell with the following text: The text string contains spaces, text, numbers, and a special character, and has a length of 56 characters. Part 1: This part determines the desired text that you want to extract from the characters. If you enable manual calculation, Excel will not calculate unless you force it to. The most important thing to know about the LEN function is it only counts the character length for only one cell. And this may make you think that your formula is not calculating. This one setting can drive you crazy (if you dont know its whats causing all the issues). So, you just have to change the format of that cell from a date, to be a number :). Excel's LEN () function returns 5 on numbers longer than 20 characters Ask Question Asked 3 years, 6 months ago Modified 3 years, 6 months ago Viewed 341 times 2 When I have numbers longer than 20 characters the LEN () function in excel returns 5.