How to Remove Spaces in Microsoft Excel

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Microsoft Excel
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Three Easy Ways to Remove Spaces in Microsoft Excel

 

Removing unwanted spaces in Excel cells is a common task that can help clean up your data and improve accuracy in calculations and analyses. There are several methods to remove spaces in Microsoft Excel, depending on the type of spaces and your specific needs. Below are three effective ways to remove spaces from cells.

Method 1: Using the Find and Replace Feature

  1. Select the cells where you want to remove spaces.
  2. Go to the Home tab on the Excel ribbon.
  3. In the Editing group, click on the Find and Replace button (or press Ctrl + H).
  4. In the Find what field, type a single space character.
  5. Leave the Replace with field empty.
  6. Click Replace All to remove all spaces from the selected cells.

This method removes all spaces, including those between words, so use it carefully if you want to keep spaces separating words.

Method 2: Using the TRIM Function

  1. Select the cells where you want to remove extra spaces.
  2. Go to the Formulas tab on the ribbon.
  3. Click on the Text function category.
  4. Choose the TRIM function.
  5. In the input box, enter the cell reference containing the text you want to clean (e.g., A1).
  6. Click OK.

The TRIM function removes all extra spaces from text except for single spaces between words, making it ideal for cleaning up data with irregular spacing.

Method 3: Using the CLEAN Function

  1. Select the cells that contain the text with unwanted non-printable characters or spaces.
  2. Navigate to the Formulas tab.
  3. Click on the Text category.
  4. Select the CLEAN function.
  5. Enter the cell reference you want to clean.
  6. Press OK to apply.

The CLEAN function removes non-printable characters such as line breaks or other invisible characters, which sometimes cause unwanted spacing or formatting issues in your data.

Summary and Tips

  • Use Find and Replace to remove all spaces, but be cautious as it removes spaces between words too.
  • TRIM is best for cleaning up extra spaces but preserves single spaces between words.
  • CLEAN helps remove hidden non-printable characters that may cause formatting problems.
  • Combine TRIM and CLEAN for thorough cleaning: =TRIM(CLEAN(A1)).