Counting blanks between first and last most variable in array

[draconius]

I have tested multiple codes and come to no solution. I am trying to create a formula to count populated and unpopulated cells between the first most variable and last most variable. I'll type it in CSV format to help differentiate. The key is that the first variable can be in column C, F, M, etc...it floats as well as the last variable.

,,,1,,,2,3,,4 (total of 10 columns). I want to return the result of 7. Whereby counting the 4 cells with 1, 2, 3 and 4 and also the blanks between 1 and 2, and 3 and 4. I've tried Index/match, ifblank, not(ifblank), etc to no avail

I tried to find the first variable and was going to affect the array as such. did not work
This brings and answer of 1 - =INDEX(D8:M8,MATCH(1,IF(D8:M8<>0,IF(D8:M8<>"",1)),0))

Counta won't work since it will count all the cells before the initial variable
I've tried =match to ID the first variable, then subtract total columns from first instance but getting last variable is key.

I am lost in trying to figure this one out.

[benishiryo]

hi draconius. maybe:
=LOOKUP(2,1/(A8:M8<>""),COLUMN(A8:M8))-SUMPRODUCT(MIN(1E+100*(A8:M8="")+COLUMN(A8:M8)))+1

[draconius]

Thank you Benishiryo! That forumla worked PERFECTLY!