Table of Contents
Remove Spaces
The TRIM function in Excel removes leading spaces extra spaces and trailing spaces. Use the SUBSTITUTE function to remove all spaces or non-breaking spaces.
1. The TRIM function below removes 2 leading spaces 3 extra spaces and 2 trailing spaces.
Note: the TRIM function does not remove single spaces between words.
2. To get the length of a string use the LEN function.
Explanation: the LEN function counts 2 spaces 2 characters 4 spaces 3 characters and 2 spaces.
3. You can use the SUBSTITUTE function to remove all spaces.
Note: the SUBSTITUTE function substitutes spaces (second argument) with empty strings (third argument).
Text imported from other applications may contain ASCII characters. The CLEAN function removes the first 32 non-printable ASCII characters (codes 0 through 31).
4. The CLEAN function below removes a non-printable character CHAR(7).
5. Simply combine CLEAN and TRIM to remove non-printable characters and spaces.
6. The CLEAN function removes line breaks. To enter a line break press ALT + ENTER.
7. You can also use the SUBSTITUTE function to remove a line break CHAR(10) and replace it with something else. For example a comma and a space.
The CLEAN function doesn’t remove all ASCII characters. Simply use the SUBSTITUTE function to remove other ASCII characters.
8. First find out the code number of the character.
9. Next use SUBSTITUTE and CHAR to return the text string without this character.
10. If your text contains non-breaking spaces CHAR(160) the TRIM function doesn’t work.
11. You can use the SUBSTITUTE function to substitute non-breaking spaces CHAR(160) with normal spaces CHAR(32). Don’t forget to add a TRIM function to remove the extra spaces.
