Excel Remove Spaces (Table of Contents)
Remove Spaces in Excel
When you import data from external databases or when you copy and paste data from another file type or programme or other applications, you can observe extra spaces in the pasted data. Usually, in that data, you can also notice extra spaces before and after text strings in cells and it may also contain extra spaces between words.
These extra spaces in the text are invisible to the human eye, it can be pointed out only when you do a character count using LEN function. These extra spaces cause trouble when you apply formula or function for that text range & when you take a printout of it. Extra spaces in the text may be present at any below-mentioned positions.
Different Types Of Spaces
- It may contain extra spaces before text strings in cells, these spaces are called Leading spaces.
- It may contain extra spaces after text strings in cells, these spaces are called Trailing spaces.
- Datasets may contain extra in-between spaces, i.e.additional spaces in between text.
- Datasets may also contain Line breaks with extra space.
We can get rid of these types of spaces quickly & easily with below-mentioned options:
- FIND AND REPLACE
- TRIM Function
- SUBSTITUTE Function
- CLEAN and TRIM function to Remove Extra Space of Line Break in excel
TRIM Function
TRIM function is a prebuilt integrated function categorized under Text functions. It Removes all extra spaces from text except a single space between words in excel.
The syntax or formula for the TRIM function in Excel is:
Trim function in Excel has only one compulsory argument or parameter i.e. text.
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- Text: It is cell content from where you need to remove extra spaces in excel.
The TRIM function only removes the ASCII space character (32) from the text.
How to Remove Extra Spaces in Excel?
Remove extra spaces in Excel is very simple and easy. Let’s understand the working of removing extra spaces in excel with the help of some examples.
Example #1 – Remove Excel Spaces with the help of Find and Replace
In the below-mentioned example, I have a dataset in column D which contains all three types of extra spaces, i.e. Leading spaces, Trailing spaces & Extra in-between spaces.
For reference, I have done a number of character count for the column D datasets. With the help of LEN function in column E., I have taken this raw data to another new column (column H) to apply Find and Replace task.
Now, I have to select the cell range where Find and Replace parameter needs to be applied to remove extra spaces in excel.
Now, to activate find and replace option, press the shortcut key Ctrl + H, find and replace window appears.
In Find what: input bar, insert a blank space with the help of the space bar once and in Replace with no need to input anything, it should remain blank. Click on the Replace All button.
It replaces all the blank spaces in the cell.
You can find a difference in character count between both datasets. Where Find and Replace remove all the blank spaces. In extra in-between spaces content also, it has removed all the blank spaces without retaining single space between words (This can be rectified with the help of TRIM function).
Note: This method is only used when you want to remove a leading & trailing type of extra spaces from selected cells or to remove completely all the spaces in the data range from excel.
Example #2 – Remove Excel Spaces with the help of TRIM Function
In the below-mentioned example, I have a dataset in column D which contains all three types of extra spaces, i.e. leading spaces, trailing spaces & extra in-between spaces.
For a reference, I have done a number of character count for the column D datasets. With the help of LEN function in column E., I have taken this raw data to another new column (column G) to apply TRIM Function. The Excel TRIM function removes all spaces from text except a single space between words.
Now, In the cell H4, let’s apply a TRIM function.
In the Formulas tab, click the Text drop-down menu in the Functions section and select TRIM.
Now the function argument dialog box appears, click on the cell G4 which contains the text where I would like to remove spaces to complete the function then click on OK.
Now, you can observe in cell H4, where trim function removes leading space in that cell.
Similarly, a TRIM function is applied to other range by selecting the cell H4 and drag it till H9 and click Ctrl+D so that it is applied to the rest of the cells.
You can find a difference in character count between both datasets. Where TRIM Function removes all spaces before and after the text in the cell (i.e. G4, G5, G6 & G7) & consecutive spaces in the middle of a string in the cell G8 & G9.
Example #3 – Remove Excel Spaces with the help of SUBSTITUTE Function
It will remove all the extra excel spaces including single spaces between words or numbers.
In the below-mentioned example, I have a dataset in column D which contains all three types of extra spaces, i.e. leading spaces, trailing spaces & extra in-between spaces.
For a reference purpose, I have done a number of character count for the column D datasets. With the help of LEN function in column E., I have taken this raw data to another new column (column G) to apply SUBSTITUTE Function.
Now, In the cell H4, let’s apply SUBSTITUTE Function.
In a Formulas tab, click the Text drop-down menu in the Functions section and select SUBSTITUTE.
Now the function argument dialog box appears:
- Text Click on the first cell in the column that you need to be changed.
- In the Old_text, I need to enter the character which needs to be replaced, it should be entered in between double quotes. i.e. for removal of spaces, it will be ” “.
- In the New text, here I don’t want to replace anything therefore, it is typed as “”.
Now, you can observe in cell H4, where Substitute function removes leading space in that cell.
SUBSTITUTE Function is applied to other range by selecting the cell H4 and drag it till H9 and click Ctrl+D so that it is applied other cells also.
You can find a difference in character count between both datasets. Where Substitute Function removes all the blank spaces, in extra in-between spaces content also, it has removed all the blank spaces without retaining single space between words.
Things to Remember about Excel Remove Spaces
- Since the extra space is also a character, therefore in ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Interchange) encoding, it has code number 32.
- Sometimes, the data appears as line breaks which may contain extra spaces between words, To remove those extra space, we can combine Excel TRIM and CLEAN function to Remove Extra Space of Line Break.
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