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Excel is all about organization and efficiency, so having blank rows of data can be really annoying on a spreadsheet but commonly happens due to error.
There are actually quite a few different ways you can delete a row in Excel, a row being the horizontal group across a spreadsheet.
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In this guide we will show you a few different ways to remove a row in Excel.
How To Delete A Row Manually
This step is easy to do when an empty row appears due to error or when you just spot a singular one.
Step
Hold Ctrl
Simply, hold Ctrl and then click on the row you wish to delete. The rows are often numerically ordered on the left axis of the spreadsheet, clicking this will highlight your whole row.
Step
Delete Row
Only when the whole row is highlighted can you right click in the same place which brings up a drop down menu, one option should read ‘Delete’. Clicking this option will delete your whole row.
How To Delete A Row With Ribbon Command
Using a ribbon command you can also remove a row.
Step
Highlight The Row
Simply highlight the row with the method instructed in the last step, simply selecting the row on the side bar.
Step
Delete Sheet Rows
From here go to the ‘Home’ tab and then click the ‘Delete’’ command which will open another drop down box. From this drop down menu simply select ‘Delete sheet rows’.
How To Delete Rows Using Keyboard Shortcut
For those who want efficiency, this keyboard shortcut can save lots of time. This same function will delete cells as well as rows.
Step
Ctrl + –
In this situation, to remove a row, we want to select the row the same way we have ben doing, and then simply press both Ctrl + – together and they will delete whatever you have selected.
Using The ‘Go To’ Function
Like on Word, the ‘Go To’ function takes you to direct instances where a specific query has occurred. In this case, blank cells and rows.
Step
Highlight Column
Highlight the entire first column of data.
Step
Press Ctrl + G
Press Ctrl + G to bring the Go To window. There should be an option called ‘Special’ within this window, click this next.
This takes you to what is essentially an advanced setting menu, a whole bunch of options and queries appear you can click on. We want ‘Blanks’. THis takes you to every instance of a blank cell.
Step
Delete Blank Rows
Once you hit ‘Ok’ this should take you to the first instance of blank cell that occurs in the first row, from this you can figure out if the whole row is blank and remove it as necessary using one of the previously mentioned steps.
This is a helpful tool when you have a very long document you want to remove blank rows from.
Using Sort To Delete A Row
Using the sort function can show you all the rows that are blank so you can delete them easily with one key function.
Step
Sort And Filter
Simply go to the ‘Data’ tab. In the ‘Sort & Filter’ section there is a sort button for alphabetic order. Either ascending (A to Z) or descending (Z to A) order, it doesn’t matter.
Step
Delete Blank Rows
What should happen is that the blank rows have been left out of the search and are at the bottom if they are totally empty. Repeat a previous step to delete them.
Final Thoughts
As you can see there are many ways to delete a row, blank or not, from your Excel spreadsheet. There are a few other ways, but these are the quickest and most practical.
Deleting rows which are empty can really be important to the organization and clarity of a spreadsheet.
