Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated January 11, 2025)
This tip applies to Excel 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021, 2024, and Excel in Microsoft 365
Excel includes an interesting worksheet function whose duty it is to make sure that your text is "clean." By this, Excel means that your text contains only printable characters. Thus, the function removes certain non-printable characters and control codes from your text. The syntax is rather simple, as follows:
=CLEAN(text)
All you need to do is include the text, or a reference to a cell that contains text. In doing some testing, it appears that the function removes anything with an ANSI value of 1 through 31, as well as the values 129, 141, 143, 144, and 157.
So why would you use the CLEAN function? If you import information from some mainframe or on-line services, the non-printable codes could be interspersed in the information you receive. This can cause problems printing or viewing the information correctly. CLEAN can help rectify those problems.
ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (10350) 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: Cleaning Text.
Best-Selling VBA Tutorial for Beginners Take your Excel knowledge to the next level. With a little background in VBA programming, you can go well beyond basic spreadsheets and functions. Use macros to reduce errors, save time, and integrate with other Microsoft applications. Fully updated for the latest version of Office 365. Check out Microsoft 365 Excel VBA Programming For Dummies today!
Want to chop off everything after a certain point in a number? The TRUNC function can help with this need.
Discover MoreThe UNIQUE function can be used to evaluate a range and return the unique values in that range. Understanding how the ...
Discover MoreThe SUMIF function is supposed to work just fine doing comparisons with text values. This isn't a hard-and-fast rule, ...
Discover MoreFREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in ExcelTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."
2025-01-11 16:29:51
J. Woolley
The TextClean macro in My Excel Toolbox removes ASCII characters 0 through 31 (Tab, CR, LF, etc.) plus ANSI characters 129, 141, 143, 144, and 157. Additional characters can be specified for removal (case-sensitive) including
Alt+nnnn for UNICHAR(nnnn). For more on this subject, see https://excelribbon.tips.net/T006126
The TextSpaceChars macro converts all UNICODE space characters (see Figure 1 below) into a standard ASCII space. For more on this subject, see https://excelribbon.tips.net/T012593
Both macros:
+ Apply to text constants within the current Selection.
+ Retain the format of individual characters (normally).
+ Support Undo (Ctrl+Z).
See https://sites.google.com/view/MyExcelToolbox/
Figure 1.
2025-01-11 07:03:01
Alex Blakenburg
Unfortunately one of the most common character needing to be removed is the non-breaking space character code 160. For this you will need to use substitute refer: https://excelribbon.tips.net/T005132_Trimming_Off_All_Spaces.html
Got a version of Excel that uses the ribbon interface (Excel 2007 or later)? This site is for you! If you use an earlier version of Excel, visit our ExcelTips site focusing on the menu interface.
FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in ExcelTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."
Copyright © 2025 Sharon Parq Associates, Inc.
Comments