I must not understand the countifs function like i thought i did... I just want to check 2 cells if they = 0. here is my formula =COUNTIFS(E6,0,E9,0) i've tried "=0" and i still get the same results. both cells are numbers and = 0 but the result is 1. it should be 2. E7 and E8 equal 0 as well...