What's the difference between using "<>"&"" vs. "<>" in Google Sheets formulas?

Question

For Google Sheets, I've seen people use both =COUNTIF(range,"<>"&"") as well as =COUNTIF(range,"<>") to count the number of non-empty cells in a range.

Is there any difference, benefit, or concern, using one approach over the other?

Answer 1

TL;DR

No difference. &"" is redundant.

A.  They are equivalent

The formulas ="<>"&"" and ="<>" both return <>.

This is necessarily so because any text string, whether "<>" or "webAppsRocks", is equivalent to the result of joining nothing else to it.

B.  The reason to use "<>"&"" instead of "<>"

1. I don't know a good reason to include &"" in any of the following:

   =COUNTIF(range,"<>&"") 
   =COUNTIF(range,"<>&""&"")
   =COUNTIF(range,"<>"&""&""&""&""&""&""&""&""&""&"")
   

2. Including "" may reflect a lack of experience on the part of users possibly combined with a spillover effect from Microsoft Excel. Even though &"" is redundant in Excel as well, users habitually include empty strings "" in formulas to avoid returning zero values. For example:

   # Excel Formula Examples
    
   =IF(TRUE,)      =IF(TRUE,"",)
   =0              =[ empty_string ]
    
   
   =IFERROR(1/0,)  =IFERROR(1/0,"")
   =0              =[ empty_string ]

C.  Why use COUNTIF?

If your goal is to count the number of values in a range or array, COUNTA is designed specifically to do that.

=COUNTA(range)   vs.  =COUNTIF(range,"<>")