How can I count (from the left) the number of blank cells before the first non-blank cell?

[axel stammler student hu-berlin de]

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Hi,

I work in teaching and need this simple straightforward function. Despoite its simnplicity
I have been looking in vain for a solution as the search terms are much too general. The
manuals &c. mention lots of highly complex functions but none that could help me here.

result  col 1   col 2   col 3   col 4   col 5
2               11      7               8
1       13      12      11              10
4                               11      12

A couple of years agon I found that MATCH provided a way, possibly in combination with IF:

=match(FALSE,if(H4:DZ4=""),0)

Obviously this should work, too:

=match(FALSE,isblank(H4:DZ4),0)

The first formula worked before the Debian upgrade from Etch to Lenny, i.e. to version
"1.8.3-5+lenny1", about a week ago; now it only returns "#N/A!", just like the second
ones.

Any help would be much appreciated.
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