Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Excel versions: 2007, 2010, 2013, and 2016. 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: Using a Formula to Replace Spaces with Dashes.
Viv has a worksheet that contains lots of product descriptions. She needs a way to replace all the spaces between words with dashes. She knows she could use Find and Replace, but would prefer to use a formula to do the replacements.
Perhaps the easiest way to accomplish this task, using a formula, is to rely on the SUBSTITUTE function. At its most simple, SUBSTITUTE is used to replace one character in a text string with a different character. Thus, assuming your original product description is in cell A1, you could use the following:
=SUBSTITUTE(A1," ","-")
This formula locates every space in the text and replaces them with dashes. If you have additional product descriptions in column A and you placed this formula in cell B1, just copy the formula down as many cells as necessary.
If you are concerned that there may be leading or trailing spaces in your data, then you can expand the formula using the TRIM function:
=SUBSTITUTE(TRIM(A1)," ","-")
Either of the formulas presented so far does great at replacing regular spaces within text. Understand, however, that if you are importing your original text from a program other than Excel, the text may contain characters that look like regular spaces, but aren't really. In that case, the above approaches won't work and you'll need to do some detective work to figure out exactly what the faux spaces really are so you can replace them.
ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (12488) applies to Microsoft Excel 2007, 2010, 2013, and 2016. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Excel here: Using a Formula to Replace Spaces with Dashes.
Save Time and Supercharge Excel! Automate virtually any routine task and save yourself hours, days, maybe even weeks. Then, learn how to make Excel do things you thought were simply impossible! Mastering advanced Excel macros has never been easier. Check out Excel 2010 VBA and Macros today!
You can easily sum a series of values in Excel, but it is not so easy to sum the absolute values of each value in a ...
Discover MoreYou can use some of Excel's worksheet functions across a range or worksheets, but not all of them. One that has problems ...
Discover MoreDo you want Excel to take the case of your text into account when it does comparisons in a formula? The IF statement ...
Discover MoreFREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in ExcelTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."
2017-07-25 03:40:16
Peter M
Spot on Alex!
I use the CellView addin from Chip Pearson (www.cpearson.com/excel/cellview.htm) to see the ascii code.
I have several macros either Trimming data or replacing spaces all of which I ultimately changed to incoropate CHR(160) as a space to avoid the hassle of things not working properly when CHR(160) is encountered.
I think there is a good case for the TRIM function automatically assuming CHR(160) is a space and processing it accordingly.
2017-07-22 08:03:41
Alex B
If you find trim isn't removing the leading & trailing spaces and / or substitute isn't handling the spaces, try isolating the character usIng MID () and finding its ASCII code using CODE() ie
=CODE(MID (A1,3,1))
- where one of the offending characters is in the 3rd position.
With a SAP application output this is likely to give you a result of 160 which the ASCII code for a non-breaking space.
You would then need to modify your substitute formula to be
=SUBSTITUTE (A1,CHAR (160),"-")
There are quite a few sources for ASCII tables but this one gives English description for the code
http://www.ascii-code.com
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 © 2018 Sharon Parq Associates, Inc.
Please Note:
This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Excel versions: 2007, 2010, 2013, and 2016. 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: 
Comments