Using Counta with a variable column

I am trying to get the number of the last used row of a column also defined by a number.
When I use the usual way of doing this

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This will give me the expected result when I step through the code but gives me an empty result when I run the code.
Rather than spend hours trying to sort that out I decided to try another way as I had a column nearby which is filled on every row
so I tried the following:

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This is syntactically wrong and I would very much appreciate some help to put it right
StartPlace is an integer. The number of a column
John

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Nigelog.
Thanks for your interest. Unfortunately your suggestion doesn't work as whatever column is chosen it gives the answer 1. This is the number of used columns in an array of 1 column (I Think)
John