Getting Rid of Spaces in Cells

Carole imports information into Excel from a different program, and this often leaves extra spaces in some cells. The spaces are the only things in the cells, so they appear to be empty but really aren't. Carole wondered about the best way to get rid of these unnecessary spaces.

There are a couple of approaches you can use. The first is to use the Find and Replace capabilities of Excel. Follow these steps:

1. Press Ctrl+H to display the Replace tab of the Find and Replace dialog box.
2. In the Find What box, enter two spaces.
3. Make sure the Replace With box is empty.
4. Select the Match Entire Cell Contents check box.
5. Click on Replace All.
6. Continue clicking on Replace All until Excel finds no more matches.
7. Repeat steps 2 through 5, but this time use only one space in step 2.
8. Close the Find and Replace dialog box.

Another option is to use the Trim worksheet function. This approach is handy if the cells you want to modify are all in a particular area of the worksheet, such as a single column. For instance, if you want to get rid of the spaces from the cells in column D, you could use the following formula:

=Trim(D1)

The Trim function returns the contents of cell D1 without any leading or trailing spaces. You could then copy the results of this formula and use Paste Special to paste the values back into whatever cells you desire.

Of course, if you have lots of worksheets you need to process, or if you routinely get workbooks that contain the extra spaces in cells, a better way would be to create a macro that could get rid of the spaces. Perhaps the fastest way would be to examine all the cells in the worksheet and get rid of any extra spaces:

Sub CleanSheet1()
    For Each cell In ActiveSheet.UsedRange
        cell.Value = Trim(cell)
    Next cell
End Sub

The macro steps through each cell and uses the Trim function to get rid of any leading or trailing spaces. This works on all the cells, but it may produce undesired results, depending on the characteristics of your data. If you have cells that have leading spaces—and you want those spaces—then you'll need to use a different macro. This version will give more satisfactory results:

Sub CleanSheet2()
    Dim rCell As Range
    Dim rText As Range

    Set rText = Cells.SpecialCells( _
      xlCellTypeConstants, _
      xlTextValues)
    For Each rCell In rText
        If Trim(rCell.Value) = "" Then
            rCell.ClearContents
        End If
    Next
    Set rText = Nothing
    Set rCell = Nothing
End Sub

It only checks those cells containing constants (which includes all text in the worksheet) and then checks to see if using the Trim function would result in an empty cell. If so, then the cell is cleared. If the Trim function wouldn't result in an empty cell, then no change is made to the cell.

There is an important thing to keep in mind when it comes to using a macro-based approach. The VBA Trim function produces different results than the Trim worksheet function. Whereas the Trim worksheet function removes all double spaces throughout cell contents (including between words), the VBA Trim function does not—it only removes spaces at the beginning and end of a string.

ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (12471) applies to Microsoft Excel 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, Excel in Microsoft 365, and 2021. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Excel here: Getting Rid of Spaces in Cells.