Excel : Count the number of words in a cell

Deepanshu Bhalla Add Comment
We all know LEN function returns the number of characters in a text string but there is no such an inbuilt function to calculate the number of words in a cell . However we can calculate the number of words in a cell using a simple nesting formula.

A1 : I love excel like a love song

B1 : =LEN(TRIM(A1))-LEN(SUBSTITUTE(A1," ",""))+1

In simple words, the above formula means 
=LEN(I love excel like a love song) - LEN(Iloveexcellikealovesong) + 1

Note : Here the trick to count the number of spaces within text .

STEP I : 

= LEN(TRIM(A1))

To count the number of characters . Trim is used to eliminate the leading and trailing spaces. The return value is 29 .

STEP II :

= SUBSTITUTE(A1," ","")

To remove space delimiter in a cell . In the above example , return value is Iloveexcellikealovesong

STEP III :

=LEN(SUBSTITUTE(A1," ",""))+1

To count the number of characters in " Iloveexcellikealovesong " string. The answer is 23

STEP IV :

=LEN(TRIM(A1))-LEN(SUBSTITUTE(A1," ",""))+1 .

=LEN(I love excel like a love song) - LEN(Iloveexcellikealovesong) + 1

i.e. 29-23+1 =7 .

Tip : If words are separated by a comma in a cell you can modify the above formula with substituting space with comma. =LEN(TRIM(A1))-LEN(SUBSTITUTE(A1,",",""))+1
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About Author:
Deepanshu Bhalla

Deepanshu founded ListenData with a simple objective - Make analytics easy to understand and follow. He has over 10 years of experience in data science. During his tenure, he worked with global clients in various domains like Banking, Insurance, Private Equity, Telecom and HR.

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