Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Excel versions: 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and 2021. If you are using an earlier version (Excel 2003 or earlier), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for earlier versions of Excel, click here: Deleting Every X Rows without a Macro.

Deleting Every X Rows without a Macro

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated April 4, 2024)
This tip applies to Excel 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and 2021

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When working with data retrieved from another source—such as another user or from an external program—you may have a need to remove certain rows from the data. It is not unusual, for instance, to have the need to remove every third row or every fifth row. The following general steps allow you to delete every X rows without using a macro.

  1. Insert two columns (A and B) on the far-left side of the worksheet.
  2. In the new column A, use AutoFill to sequentially number the rows from 1 to the end.
  3. In cell B1 (assuming you have no header row), enter the formula =MOD(A1,3). (This formula assumes that you want to delete every third row. If you want to delete some other multiple of rows, substitute that number in place of the 3 in the formula.)
  4. Copy the formula downward to all the other cells in the B column.
  5. Display the Data tab of the ribbon.
  6. Click the Filter tool, in the Sort & Filter group. Excel displays small drop-down arrows beside the header row cells.
  7. Using the drop-down list in column B, select the 0. Now, only those rows with a zero in column B appear.
  8. Select all the displayed rows and delete them.
  9. Turn off AutoFilter. (Repeat steps 5 and 6 to do this.)
  10. Delete columns A and B.

ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (6123) applies to Microsoft Excel 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and 2021. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Excel here: Deleting Every X Rows without a Macro.

Author Bio

Allen Wyatt

With more than 50 non-fiction books and numerous magazine articles to his credit, Allen Wyatt is an internationally recognized author. He is president of Sharon Parq Associates, a computer and publishing services company. ...

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What is 7 - 3?

2020-06-22 12:36:52

Neil

I see a pattern like 1,2,3,1,2,3 CAN be auto-populated if it is formatted as text before being entered.

2020-06-22 12:18:47

Neil

nevermind, autofill won't work that way. That's pretty dumb of excel not to be able to detect a pattern like that.

2020-06-22 12:12:52

Neil

Or, you could just use one helper column and put, in this case, 1,2,3,1,2,3 and autofill the rest of the way down and then filter for the number 3 and delete those rows.

2020-06-20 14:10:52

Frank Moore

Wow. This is another great tip. I frequently have this problem when I import a CSV file. Thank you very much.

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