interpreting a formula

[amartino44]

I found on this site a wonderful formula to copy only the items with text from column one into column (essentially ignoring the blanks). The only problem is that I don't understand the formulas and I would like to. Could someone please explain? Thanks The formulas used are below.

Enter the following formula into an available cell: COUNTIF($B$2:$B$4000,"?*")

=IF(ROWS($A$1:A1)>X1,"",INDEX($B$2:$B$4000,SMALL(IF($B$2:$B$4000<>"",ROW($B$2:$B$4000)-ROW($B$2)+1),ROWS($A$1:A1))))

[Pete_UK]

You can use Evaluate Formula (on the Formulas tab, in the Formula Auditing group) to step through a complex formula like this and see what is happening at each stage.

Hope this helps.

Pete