Counting empty cells to the left

**Befuddled** · 09-22-2009, 05:46 AM

I am trying to count the # of empty cells to the left
I trying to work out how many days since an employee has missed
In this worksheet, a letter is placed in the cell corresponding to the day they missed. And I need to count backwards from a date (say: July 31st) to the last day with a letter in it.

**DonkeyOte** · 09-22-2009, 06:01 AM

A sample file is generally helpful in these situations...

=COLUMN(Z1)-MATCH(REPT("Z",255),A1:Z1)

would for ex. return the count of blanks between Z1 and the last text entry in A1:Z1

**Befuddled** · 09-22-2009, 06:19 AM

Here is the file, I have made it pop up an "X" if that person has been absent in the last 6 months, but now someone needs to know how long since the last absence.

**Befuddled** · 09-22-2009, 06:22 AM

Also, could you expain what the 255 was for in your formula

**DonkeyOte** · 09-22-2009, 06:48 AM

Could you post a version with your desired output (calculated manually of course) ... based on your last file I'm not sure where you want these results to appear nor from which date the calculation is meant to be based... presumably today ?