Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Excel versions: 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021, 2024, and Excel in Microsoft 365. 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: Shortcut for Selecting a Data Range.

Shortcut for Selecting a Data Range

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated January 25, 2025)
This tip applies to Excel 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021, 2024, and Excel in Microsoft 365


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The quickest way to select a range of data on your worksheet is to use Ctrl+Shift+8. (This is the same as Ctrl+*.) This selects, using the currently selected cell as the starting point, the contiguous cells that contain data. The selection stops when a blank row or a blank column is reached. The shortcut also results in the upper-left cell of the range being the active cell.

To see how the shortcut works, suppose you have data in the range A1:A325, and more data in the range C1:E190. If you start with cell A7 selected and then press Ctrl+Shift+8, then A1:A325 is selected. (The other data range isn't selected because column B is blank.) If you start with cell D12 selected and press Ctrl+Shift+8, then the range C1:E190 is selected. Again, the selection doesn't extend to column A because column B is blank.

There is another keyboard shortcut that will also select a data range: Ctrl+A. In most Windows-based programs, Ctrl+A stands for "select all," meaning everything in whatever file the program is working on. Not so in Excel. If you have a cell selected within a data range, pressing Ctrl+A once will function the same as Ctrl+*. If you press Ctrl+A a second time, then Excel selects the entire worksheet.

There is a difference between Ctrl+* and Ctrl+A, though: Pressing Ctrl+* not only selects the data range, it also makes the top-left cell in that data range the active cell. Pressing Ctrl+A to select the data range leaves the active cell unchanged.

You can get around this behavior a bit by remembering that once you have a range of cells selected, you can repeatedly press Ctrl+. (that's Ctrl and a period) to select the cells at the corners of the selected range. Thus, pressing Ctrl+A once and then pressing Ctrl+. is the same as pressing Ctrl+*.

ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (8966) applies to Microsoft Excel 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021, 2024, and Excel in Microsoft 365. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Excel here: Shortcut for Selecting a Data Range.

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 + 1?

2025-01-25 05:30:12

Alex Blakenburg

Ctrl+A behaves differently with an Excel Table (ListObject) selected. While Ctrl+* still selects the Entire Table including the heading,
Pressing Ctrl+A
• Once -> Selects the Tables Data Range excluding the headings
• Twice -> Expands to include the headings (=Ctrl+*)
• Three times -> selects the Entire Worksheet


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