HOW TO DELETE THE SPACE IN THE CELL

excel_beginner_lx

Board Regular
Joined
Aug 6, 2003
Messages
143
I HAVE A SPREADSHEET IN WHICH SOME CELLS START WITH SPACE INTEAD OF THE WORD ITSELF, IE. ABOUT IS LIKE _ _ _ ABOUT. THERE ARE 3 SPACES IN FRONT.

iS THERE A QUICK WAY TO GET RID OF IT. I HAVE A LOT LIKE THIS AND THEY HAVE DIFFERENT NUMBER OF SPACES.
 

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excel_beginner_lx said:
I HAVE A SPREADSHEET IN WHICH SOME CELLS START WITH SPACE INTEAD OF THE WORD ITSELF, IE. ABOUT IS LIKE _ _ _ ABOUT. THERE ARE 3 SPACES IN FRONT.

iS THERE A QUICK WAY TO GET RID OF IT. I HAVE A LOT LIKE THIS AND THEY HAVE DIFFERENT NUMBER OF SPACES.

There's a Trim All macro floating around the board. Also ASAP Utilities at

www.asap-utilities.com

has a function to delete leading and trailing spaces
 
Upvote 0
Dave McRitchie's Trimall will do this in a heartbeat:-

Code:
Sub a_TrimALL()
'David McRitchie 2000-07-03 mod 2000-08-16 join.htm
    Application.ScreenUpdating = False
    Application.Calculation = xlCalculationManual
    Dim cell As Range
    'Also Treat CHR 0160, as a space (CHR 032)
    Selection.Replace what:=Chr(160), Replacement:=Chr(32), _
                      LookAt:=xlPart, SearchOrder:=xlByRows, MatchCase:=False
    'Trim in Excel removes extra internal spaces, VBA does not
    On Error Resume Next   'in case no text cells in selection
    For Each cell In Intersect(Selection, _
                               Selection.SpecialCells(xlConstants, xlTextValues))
        cell.Value = Application.Trim(cell.Value)
    Next cell
    On Error GoTo 0
    Application.Calculation = xlCalculationAutomatic
    Application.ScreenUpdating = True
End Sub
and a slight amendment to do all sheets if you want
Code:
Sub a_TrimALLSheets()
'David McRitchie 2000-07-03 mod 2000-08-16 join.htm
    Application.ScreenUpdating = False
    Application.Calculation = xlCalculationManual
    Dim cell As Range
    'Also Treat CHR 0160, as a space (CHR 032)
    For x = 1 To ActiveWorkbook.Worksheets.Count
        Worksheets(x).Activate
        ActiveSheet.UsedRange.Select
        Selection.Replace what:=Chr(160), Replacement:=Chr(32), _
                          LookAt:=xlPart, SearchOrder:=xlByRows, MatchCase:=False
        'Trim in Excel removes extra internal spaces, VBA does not
        On Error Resume Next   'in case no text cells in selection
        For Each cell In Intersect(Selection, _
                                   Selection.SpecialCells(xlConstants, xlTextValues))
            cell.Value = Application.Trim(cell.Value)
        Next cell
        On Error GoTo 0
        Range("A1").Select
    Next x
    Application.Calculation = xlCalculationAutomatic
    Application.ScreenUpdating = True
End Sub
 
Upvote 0
In case a solution without VBA is desirable, there's also the formula TRIM. For example, if you have data in column A:
1) insert the formula "=TRIM(A1)" in B1 and copy down,
2) copy column B and paste special -> values in Column A
3)Remove formulas
 
Upvote 0
Just a thought, but do you know how to put the macro in place and use it? Just in case not then the following may help:-

Code:
Hit ALT+F11 and this will open the VBE (Visual Basic Editor)
Top left you will hopefully see an explorer style pane.  Within this pane you need to search for your workbook's name, and when you find it you may need to click on the + to
expand it.  Within that you should see the following:-

VBAProject(Your_Filename)
   Microsoft Excel Objects
        Sheet1(Sheet1)
        Sheet2(Sheet2)
        Sheet3(Sheet3)
        ThisWorkbook

If you have named your sheets then those names will appear in the brackets above as opposed to what you see at the moment in my note.

Right click on the where it says VBAProject(Your_Filename) and choose 'Insert Module' and it will now look like this

VBAProject(Your_Filename)
   Microsoft Excel Objects
        Sheet1(Sheet1)
        Sheet2(Sheet2)
        Sheet3(Sheet3)
        ThisWorkbook
   Modules
        Module1

Double click the Module1 bit and then paste in the macro
code you want to use starting at the Sub xxx() bit and finishing at the End Sub() bit.


Then hit File / Close and return to Microsoft Excel and save the file.  Now just do Tools / Macro / Macros / xxx


If you then want to get rid of the macro, then do the following:-

Hit ALT+F11 and this will open the VBE (Visual Basic Editor)
Top left you will hopefully see an explorer style pane.  Within this pane you need to search for your workbook's name, and when you find it you may need to click on the + to expand it.  Within that you should see the following:-

VBAProject(Your_Filename)
   Microsoft Excel Objects
        Sheet1(Sheet1)
        Sheet2(Sheet2)
        Sheet3(Sheet3)
        etc..........................
        ThisWorkbook
   Modules
        Module1

Right click on the Module1 and select remove.  When prompted with a question re exporting, just hit no.  Then hit File / Close and return to Microsoft Excel and save the file.
 
Upvote 0

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