Do you often use Excel for work or personal documents but struggle with removing certain characters or digits? Fear not, we have compiled a list of easy-to-follow steps for removing specific characters in Excel.
1. Removing Selected Characters from Excel Cells
If you are dealing with a large set of data and only want to remove specific characters, follow these simple steps:
- Select the cell or range of cells that you wish to modify.
- Click on the “Home” tab and then on “Find & Select” button, select “Replace” or use the shortcut “CTRL+H”.
- In the “Find what:” field, enter the character or characters you wish to remove. For example, if you want to remove all the hyphens in a series of phone numbers, type “-“.
- Leave the “Replace with:” field empty.
- Click “Replace All” to remove the selected characters throughout the entire cell range.
It is important to note that this method only targets specific characters and will not remove all characters within a cell. If you want to remove everything within a cell, see method 3.
2. Removing Characters from Specific Positions in Excel Cells
If you want to remove characters from specific positions within a cell, follow these steps:
- Select the cell or range of cells that you wish to modify.
- Click on the “Formulas” tab and then on the “Text” button, select “MID” or use the formula “MID( )”.
- In the “MID Function” box, enter the cell containing the text in the “Text” field.
- Enter the starting position in the “Start_num” field. For example, if you want to remove the first three characters of a cell, enter “4”.
- Enter the number of characters you want to remove in the “Num_chars” field.
- Press “Enter” to complete the formula. Your selected characters should now be removed from the cell or cell range.
3. Removing all Characters from Excel Cells
If you want to remove everything within a cell, follow these steps:
- Select the cell or range of cells that you wish to modify.
- Press “CTRL + H” or click on the “Home” tab and then the “Find & Replace” button and select “Replace”.
- In the “Find what:” field, enter “.*” without the quotes. The period represents any character and the asterisk represents any number of characters. This combination will select everything in the cell.
- Leave the “Replace with:” field empty, then click “Replace All”.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Q. Can I remove specific characters from multiple cells at once?
A. Yes, simply select the range of cells you wish to modify and follow the steps mentioned in method 1.
Q. Can I remove a specific character within a larger string of characters?
A. Yes, use method 2 and specify the starting position and number of characters to remove within the cell.
Additional Resources
For visual learners, check out this YouTube video tutorial on how to remove specific characters in Excel:
