Count only fields with text/data, not formulas

Question

I have a listing of headcount within a given month that I am comparing to budgeted headcount. I have used a vlookup to match budget to actuals. Then: =IF(ISNA(M66),K66," ") to return names that are not in budget, but in actuals (HR file) or else blank.

Now I would like to count the names returned in the column , but I'm having trouble with the count functions recognizing the formula in the cells even though they are blank.

Thanks for your time!

Answer 1

[Edit - didn't notice the space in " " - remove that as Scott suggests then try below]

If range of data is A2:A100 try this formula to count text values but not ""

=COUNTIF(A2:A100,"?*")

or if you want to include numeric values too

=SUMPRODUCT((A2:A100<>"")+0)

Answer 2

COUNTA(A2:A100,"")-COUNTA(A2:A100)