3 ways to remove spaces between words / numbers in Excel cells
3 quick ways to remove extra spaces between words or delete all spaces from Excel cells. You can use trim formula, Excel Find & replace or special Excel add-in to clean up cells' content.
When you paste data from an external source to an Excel spreadsheet (plain text reports, numbers from web pages, etc.), you are likely to get extra spaces along with important data. There can be leading and trailing spaces, several blanks between words and thousand separators for numbers.
Consequently, your table looks disorderly and becomes difficult to use. It may be a challenge to find a customer in the Name column since you search for "John Doe" which has no excess spaces between the names while the way it looks in your table is "John Doe". Or numbers can't be summed up, and again extra blanks are the ones to blame.
In this article you'll find how to clean up your data.
Trim blanks between words to 1, remove trailing / leading spaces
For example, you have a table with 2 columns. In the column Name, the first cell contains "John Doe" written correctly without excess spaces. All other cells have extra blanks between the first and the last names. At the same time these cells have irrelevant blanks before and after the full names known as leading and trailing spaces. The second column is called Length and shows the number of symbols in each name:
Use the Trim formula to remove extra spaces
Excel has the Trim formula to use for deleting extra spaces from text. Below you can find the steps showing how to use this option:
- Add the helper column to the end of your data. You can name it "Trim".
- In the first cell of the helper column (C2), enter the formula to trim excess spaces
=TRIM(A2)
- Copy the formula across the other cells in the column. Feel free to use some tips from Enter the same formula into all selected cells at a time.
- Replace the original column with the one that has the cleaned data. Select all cells in the helper column and press Ctrl + C to copy data to clipboard.
Now pick the first cell in the original column and press Shift + F10 or the menu button
. Then just press V.
- Remove the helper column.
That's it! We deleted all excess blanks with the help of the formula trim(). Unfortunately, it's a bit time-consuming, especially if your spreadsheet is rather big.
Note: If after using the formula you still see extra spaces (the last cell on the screenshot), please have a look at If the TRIM Function Doesn't Work
Using Find & Replace to remove extra spaces between words
This option needs fewer steps, but allows only deleting excess spaces between words. Leading and trailing spaces will also be trimmed to 1, but will not be removed.
- Select one or several columns with the data to delete spaces between words.
- Press Ctrl + H to get the "Find and Replace" dialog box.
- Press the Space bar twice in the Find What field and once in Replace With
- Click on the "Replace all" button, and then press Ok to close Excel confirmation dialog.
- Repeat step 4 until you see the message "We couldn't find anything to replace." :)
3 clicks to neat data with Cell Cleaner add-in
If you often import data to Excel from external sources and spend much time polishing up your tables, check out Cell Cleaner add-in for Excel.
This helpful tool will clean data imported from web or any other external source. It removes leading and trailing spaces, excess blanks between words, non-breaking spaces, line breaks, non-printing symbols and other unwanted characters. This add-in also converts words to UPPER, lower or Proper Case. And if you need to change text numbers back to number format and delete apostrophes, this will not be a problem.
- Download and install Cell Cleaner add-in for Excel.
- Select the range in your table where you want to remove excess spaces. For new tables I usually press Ctrl + A to process all columns in a go.
- Go to Ablebits Data tab and click on the Trim Spaces icon
- The Cell Cleaner pane will open on the left side of your worksheet. Just select the needed checkboxes, click the Trim button and enjoy your perfectly cleaned table.
Isn't it faster than with the two previous tips? If you always deal with data processing, this tool will save you hours of precious time.
Remove all spaces between numbers
Suppose, you have a workbook with numbers where the digits (thousands, millions, billions) are separated with spaces. Thus Excel sees numbers as text and no math operation can be performed.
The easiest way to get rid of excess spaces is using the standard Excel Find & Replace option:
- Press Ctrl + Space to select all cells in a column.
- Press Ctrl + H to open the "Find & Replace" dialog box.
- Press Space bar in the Find What field and make sure the "Replace with" field is empty.
- Click on the "Replace all" button, and then press Ok. Voila! All spaces are removed.
Using formula to remove all spaces
You may need to delete all blanks, like in a formula chain. To do this, you can create a helper column and enter the formula: =SUBSTITUTE(A1," ","")
Here A1 is the first cell of the column with numbers or words where all spaces must be deleted.
Then follow the steps from the part using formula to remove extra spaces between words to 1
158 Responses to "3 ways to remove spaces between words / numbers in Excel cells"
Perfect its wonderful
If you copy numbers from a web page, or Microsoft Outlook, you get leading Blank Spaces and then your numbers will Not sum. You have to remove the leading blank spaces for the numbers to sum as numbers should. Go to Data-> Text to Column->Fixed Width and verify that a line appears PRIOR to the copied number data. Then go to "NEXT" and make sure the tab that says, "General", is selected Then Click "FINISH", and all your Non-summing numbers will now sum properly.
thanks loads!!
Thanks! a lot remind me
Very helpful. Many thanks
we can also use text to column function.
You just insert two or three columns after that data and select the data and go to data (tools)and select text to column delimited and click on space option and other character if available in that data and after that click next button and now you will be able to remove extra spaces in that data.
Thanks
Pankaj Parti (india)
Thank you for your comment! Your solution works fine, though it may take just a little bit more time.
how to remove spaces after cheque No.
Thank you, useful tips
Thanks.
I have a txt dataset that seems to be seperated with tabs but actually nodes are seperated with space character. I brought it into an excel file and saved it as an csv file then I converted it to an arff file and now I'm openning it in weka but it gives an error to me and say "can not be recognized as an arff file".I don't know what the problem is!
I am not able to determine the cause of the error without seeing your data. If you can send me your file at alex@ablebits.com., I will try to help.
Didnt work for me too, however found the right way. Select and highlight the space you want to get rid of. Copy this space and select the find and replace. Paste this space in find and replace with nothing. I guess it wasnt a space in the first place. Whatever it was you now find it by copying whatever it was. Hope it works for you.
worked a treat! thanks
Thanks so much for your help. A simple solution to a very frustrating problem.
Thanks that worked for me!
Yay, great solution!
Thanks a lot Joel!!!
Thanks for the solution
This worked for me.
Thanks
Thanks a lot. It worked out for me.
Thanks alot ur a life saver
please let me know how to make data base on excel?????
I have 12 Mar 2004 but i need 12-Mar-04.
Please help
Change the cell format
Hi,
1st Replace Space to (-),
then change the date format.
thanks it's really nice like magic
Oops!! i was just checking for validation. Anyways good Information in here for trimming!!
Too good buddy..keep up
Super............
Thank you...
How to remove left space for multiple line in one cell
----------
John Doe
John Doe
John Doe
----------
how to remove multiple space before numbers in excel. 100 cells contain different space.
Perfecto
it was nice learning new tips but help on how to delect the first six alphabet fro these GAP GRE YTR 453 VM TO YTR453VM ON A ARRAY OF MULTIPLE DATA
Thanks a lot bro.. it was helpful..
Thank you sir
How to remove the space in a column having numbers ending with single space.
Amount
65375
45575
18088
54147
Well, just to let you know this does not work. Spaces are still there!!!
Dear it work same like function of =substitute(Cell Ref No.," ","")
Thanks
I found this tip helpful:
With your data selected, press Ctrl+H, click in the Find box, hold Alt key and type 0160 on the number keypad. Leave the Replace box blank and press Replace All
This is the best solution! Thanks for sharing
Nice one. Just putting a space throws an error, but this works great and is much easier than any of these other suggestions. Thanks mate.
THANKS FOR THE SOLUTION
Thanks for sharing. Finest and easiest solution of all.
Best Solution. Thanks
i am copy some data in same sheet and paste in same but same space is coming how to remove i used trim option also but starting some space coming after that word starting. so what to do
like-
_________ABCD
how to remove spaces before date.
not working!
I cannot get this to work if the number starts with a 0, like many UPC codes. It removes the 0 as well. Any suggestions?
How i can remove 12333 back spaces from my data. please answer ASAP thanks
its not working for leading spaces
THANKX VERY MUCH FOR THE HELP.
great!!!!
thanks a lot, this rescued my report.
thank you so much for this post, it helps me a lot!
Thank you so much! Extremely helpful.
Great post. Thanks!
thanks dude....It will help me a lot
Life saver! My co-worker and I spent the longest time trying to figure out how to get of the spaces between our phone number data! I read your tip and voila- it took me 5 seconds:)
Thank you!!
92 300 xxxxxxx
space not clear please help
TYAGI
How Many Character in Word & Please Describe and Solution..Plz Help Me
Commission Fees on Order #3047807249291 how to trim characters from figures by using find and replace option if have different numeric figures Commission Fees on Order #3047807249 please share some trick.
+92 345 5923729
HOW TO REMOVE SPACE ?
PLEASE GUIDEME ASAP WHOLE LIST I HAVE
how to find the spaces between the string.. I don't want to remove those spaces.. but, just want to know is there any spaces in the string or not..
Thanks AAAAAAAA LOT... Saves my time and energy.. The Second way...
It worked thanks a lot for space
But can we remove the in between empty space in the coloum
Thanq so much sir
Thanks you for the guidance
WOW its working, thank q very much...
hi, I have a column of numbers downloaded from another system, which is in text format, tried all the ways mentioned above but didn't work, could some one please help me out here?
3 837,87
1 927,54
2 208,57
1 891,05
1 875,18
1 880,74
5 162,41
66 271,65
180 815,92
66 795,78
200,00
5 458,81
thanks,
Nishanth
Save as Excel 97 - 2003 -workbook (*.xls) format. Now copy the space character from the cell to use in Find and Replace, leave Replace with as blank. Don't know if it matters in which format cells are, only this way worked for me and i have Excel 2016.
Helo,
Please guide me how to remove space before a Number like below
" 0.29"
" 1.459"
I try to copy number for web to paste into an excel but i still can't get rid of that space could someone help me please here is the subject.
(2 917.20 )
how to remove blank cells from the column in excel sheet.
Its amazing,,
Very helpful to everyone
Perfect save the day!
plz find ans. this problem
you cannot use this command on protected seet to use this command you must first unprotect the seet
Hello tushar,
Please see
How to unlock cells in Excel (unprotect a sheet)
Thanking you. very useful
thank you, very helpful
Thank you mannn...
Thanks a lot
this was wonderful. it saved me hundreds of working minutes
thanks a lot for your suggestion .
tnx a lot
Thank you. I just used this to solve a major problem at work now. God bless.
04 100 950105 - this is the original
04100950105 - i want to make it like this
Hi kamlesh,
You should use the following formula:
=SUBSTITUTE(A1, " ", "")
i hve tried but it is not cming....can u pls guide in formula
i want to remove space between 04 100 950105 it has to be 04100950105
Try Joel's solution above:
"Didnt work for me too, however found the right way. Select and highlight the space you want to get rid of. Copy this space and select the find and replace. Paste this space in find and replace with nothing. I guess it wasnt a space in the first place. Whatever it was you now find it by copying whatever it was. Hope it works for you."
Thank you very much Renat Tlebaldziyeu (Ablebits.com Team)
It worked.......
can I make my number look like $22 instead of $ 22
Depending on the version of Excel you are running, if you format the cell as currency, it should automatically remove any unnecessary spaces for you.
I hope this helps
Precisely I got what I want
thanks very much for a good work done
Select the whole column/width Choose find option/Ctrl "S" select space button and replace it .
How to remove space before and after of /
Please help on it.
dear Sir,
i would like to remove some extra words from one column,
how to use trim formula here
Great job , it really worked for me
Thanks
VERY HELPFULL
Thanks a lot. Very useful.
Very helpful.
Thanks a lot
Very helpful. This saved so much time.
Its very healpfull
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very nice its works........
but can you tell me now how to copy and paste this corrected excel worksheet data in another sheet. because its not pasted in another sheet.
and even we delete the previous and unstructured data then automatically corrected data invisible or unstructured in shape of #REF! this.
so please help me how to use this corrected data or paste this data in another sheet.
thanks
1000
5000
2000
how can i remove the space, plz help
Excellent
More then one space in front of numbers , how to remove?
Hi, How am I going to copy paste formula with spaces(filtered) between cells?Thank you!
Perfect... its really wonderful
Thanks, I searched a lot for removing space but it worked with call cleaner add-in Finally.
I have a problem in my excel
like 1zw76589246565992 . in right hand side one space is there
if I try to trim that one it appears trim formula. I don't want it because I want to duplicate the files like 1zw76589246565992 .- 1zw76589246565992
So please tell me how can I remove the space without appearing formula?...
I have a problem in my excel
like 1zw76589246565992 . in right hand side one space is there
if I try to trim that one it appears trim formula. I don't want it because I want to duplicate the files like 1zw76589246565992 .- 1zw76589246565992
So please tell me how can I remove the space without appearing formula?...
good one
Thank you
I want revmove space 53X 101
53 X 101 after replace space i got only 53X 101 . But i want 53X101... Please help
remove space between numbers did not work for me!
Worked for Me.
I took the time to actually say thank you this time, usually i don't bother.
Dear All,
Kindly help me into provide a formula for the below case.
I need to delete space after number.
581086
581086
581086
Dear Ahamed,
Thank you for your question.
Please note that you can remove extra spaces using the Trim formula. However, our Trim Spaces add-in can help you solve this task faster and easier. It is available as a part of our Text Toolkit that contains 8 useful add-ins to manage text data in Excel (remove extra spaces, substrings and non-printable characters, change case, split cells, etc.).
You can install a fully functional 7-day trial version of Text Toolkit and see if it works as you need. Here is this direct download link.
Pleas let us know if there is anything we can help you with.
Thanks buddy
thank you!
In my excel i don't have Ablebits Data option please suggest how to get it.
Hello, Girish,
Please note that the Ablebits tab will appear in your Excel Ribbon once you install our software. If you want to use our Trim Spaces add-in to remove extra spaces from your worksheet, feel free to install a fully functional 7-day trial version of Text Toolkit that contains 8 useful add-ins to manage text data in Excel and see if the tools work for you. Here is the direct download link.
Feel free to contact us again if you have any questions or difficulties.
Thank you.
Your tool worked fast and deleted leading and trailing spaces before numbers in a 4500-row spreadsheet! Thanks!
Thank you buddy you saved the day :)