Excel Formula for Counting Consecutive Zeros

Good Afternoon:

I created an excel formula to count the number of consecutive zeros in a column. I am interested in one consecutive zero, two consecutive zeros, three consecutive zeros, etc...

I used the following formula:

=SUM(IF(FREQUENCY(IF(P$2:P$279=0,ROW(P$2:P$279)),IF(P$2:P$279<>0,ROW(P$2:P$279)))=W2,FREQUENCY(IF(P$2:P$279=0,ROW(P$2:P$279)),IF(P$2:P$279<>0,ROW(P$2:P$279)))))

The formula works 98% of the time. It generally produces the correct number of consecutive zeros, however, occassionally it will indicate there are 15 sets of zeros = 15. Can anyone provide any guidance as to what should be done with this formula?

Thank you for your time.

what's in W2? I assume that's the number of consecutive zeroes that you wish to count? If that's 5 for instance then that formula will give the number of sets of exactly 5 zeroes multiplied by 5, e.g. if there are 3 sets of 5 zeroes it will return 15. If you just want the result to be 3 use

=SUM(IF(FREQUENCY(IF(P$2:P$279=0,ROW(P$2:P$279)),IF(P$2:P$279<>0,ROW(P$2:P$279)))=W2,1))

confirmed with CTRL+SHIFT+ENTER

Note that truly blank cells in P2:P279 will also be counted as zeroes (although the formula could be altered to stop that).....

Thanks, Daddylonglegs. Yes, W2 was the number of consecutive zeros. That worked perfectly! Thanks again!