Text function

Excel LEN function

Q: How do I count characters in a cell in Excel?

Use =LEN(A2). It counts letters, digits, spaces and punctuation.

Q: How do I count characters without spaces in Excel?

Remove the spaces first: =LEN(SUBSTITUTE(A2," ","")).

Q: How do I count how many times a character appears in a cell?

Subtract the length without it: =LEN(A2)-LEN(SUBSTITUTE(A2,",","")) counts the commas.

LEN counts how many characters are in a cell, including spaces and punctuation. Use it to check that IDs are the right length, find hidden spaces, or work out how much text to pull with LEFT or RIGHT.

=LEN(text)

Arguments

text: The text or cell to count. Numbers are counted as they would be written out.

LEN examples

Every result below was calculated from this sample sheet by the same spreadsheet engine the Cellwise app uses.

	A	B	C
1	Username	Zip	Tweet draft
2	jsmith	02139	Big launch today! Check out our new spring line.
3	maria.gonzalez	9021	Thanks for 10k followers
4	tk	60614	Store closed Monday.

=LEN(A2)
Result: 6
Counts the letters in "jsmith": 6.
=IF(LEN(B3)<>5,"Check zip","OK")
Result: Check zip
US zip codes have 5 digits, so the 4-character "9021" gets flagged.
=LEN(C3)-LEN(TRIM(C3))
Result: 1
Counts the extra spaces TRIM would remove. Here there is 1 trailing space.
=280-LEN(C2)
Result: 232
Shows how many characters are left before a 280-character limit.

How to use LEN

Click the cell for the count.
Type =LEN( and select the cell to measure.
Close the bracket.
Use the result in IF, LEFT, RIGHT or MID as needed.

Common LEN mistakes

Forgetting that spaces count

LEN includes every space, including invisible ones at the end. Compare with LEN(TRIM(A2)) to spot them.

Measuring formatted numbers

LEN counts the stored value, not what you see. 5.00 shown with two decimals counts as 1 character.

LEN FAQ

How do I count characters in a cell in Excel?

Use =LEN(A2). It counts letters, digits, spaces and punctuation.

How do I count characters without spaces in Excel?

Remove the spaces first: =LEN(SUBSTITUTE(A2," ","")).

How do I count how many times a character appears in a cell?

Subtract the length without it: =LEN(A2)-LEN(SUBSTITUTE(A2,",","")) counts the commas.