Communicating between two excell columns using functions ( no macros) ?

Comm2Colum.jpgComm2Colum.jpgSo I have two columns of data. Column D changes from a letter to a blank depending on the user inputs of column B. Column E has numbers designated to the letters that are present in Column D. My problem is as follows:

- I need to create a function that counts how many cells in Column E still have a adjacent letter in Column D after the user is done with the inputs in Column B.

SO BASICALLY HOW DO I GET THESE TWO COLUMNS TO COMMUNICATE?
TWO DAYS IS FAR TOO LONG FOR THIS PROJECT.

So far what I tried doing was to put a count function inside an if function to count the number of cells still having a letter in Column D(condition for if function). However, escel is not able to do this because the if function goes to false once it hits the first blank. thus skipping the count and making the result a 0.

PLEASE HELP!

Attached is an example of what I am talking about.

So the result should reflect how many times 20 repeats iff their correspoing D-cells have a character and not a blank. ( Result = 2)