A to Z of Excel Functions: The AREAS Function

Welcome back to our regular A to Z of Excel Functions blog.  Today we look at the AREAS function.

The AREAS function

When used, the AREAS function returns the number of areas in a reference.  An area is a range of continuous cells or a single cell.  If a range is made up of contiguous cells, the range number is based on the number of separate references (please see the second example below).

We’re not 100% sure where you might use this though other than in a blog series about all of Excel’s functions…

The AREAS function employs the following syntax to operate:

AREAS(reference)

• reference: a reference to a cell or range of cells and can refer to multiple areas.  If you wish to specify several references as a single argument, then you must include extra set of parentheses so that Microsoft Excel will not interpret the comma as a field separator.

Please see my example below:

We’ll continue our A to Z of Excel Functions soon.  Keep checking back – there’s a new blog post every other business day.