This post explains that how to count the number of words in a cell using excel formula. How to count total words in a cell with User Defined Functions in excel VBA.

Count the number of words in a cell

If you want to count the number of words in a single cell, you can create an excel formula based on the IF function, the LEN function, the TRIM function and the SUBSTITUTE function. You need to use the SUBSTITUTE function to remove all space strings from the text string in a cell, then the returned value goes into the LEN function to get the length of the text without space string. You still need to get the length of the text with space strings and then subtract to the length of the text without space to get the number of spaces, then add 1 to get the number of words in a cell.

Assuming that you want to get the number of words in cell B1, you can write down an excel formula as follows:

=IF(LEN(TRIM(B1))=0, 0, LEN(TRIM(B1))-LEN(SUBSTITUTE(B1," ", ""))+1)

Let’s see how this formula works:

=LEN(TRIM(B1))-LEN(SUBSTITUTE(B1,” “, “”))+1

This formula returns the number of words in the text in Cell B1. The SUBSTITUTE function replaces all space strings with empty string to remove all spaces, and using LEN function to get the length of the text without spaces.

The TRIM function will remove extra spaces from the text and just leave one space between words.

 

=IF(LEN(TRIM(B1))=0, 0, LEN(TRIM(B1))-LEN(SUBSTITUTE(B1,” “, “”))+1)

The IF function will check if it is an empty cell, if TRUE, then returns 0, otherwise, returns the number of words in the text in cell.

Count the number of words in a cell with User Defined Function

You can also create a new user defined function to count the number of words in a cell in Excel VBA:

1# click on “Visual Basic” command under DEVELOPER Tab.

2# then the “Visual Basic Editor” window will appear.

3# click “Insert” ->”Module” to create a new module

4# paste the below VBA code into the code window. Then clicking “Save” button.

Function countTotalWordCell(rng As Range) As Integer
    countTotalWordCell = UBound(Split(rng.Value, " "), 1) + 1
End Function

5# back to the current worksheet, then enter the below formula in Cell C1:

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