Microsoft Excel is one of the most widely used tools in any industry. As a typical spreadsheet program, it allows the users to import and store large amounts of data in workbooks. MS Excel is optimized for data analysis and calculation. This flexible program can also be used to build models for analyzing data, write simple and complex formulas to execute calculations on that data, pull pivot tables from the data in any possible way, and present data with professional-looking charts. While users play around with data in Excel, they often find a need to delete multiple rows in Microsoft Excel.
When users deal with large data sets, there are many ways in which they can delete individual rows to even thousands of rows. In this guide, you will know the different tricks to delete multiple rows in Microsoft Excel in one go.
How to delete Multiple Rows in Excel
You can try the following methods to delete multiple rows in Microsoft Excel, which are unwanted:
- Deleting multiple rows in Microsoft Excel through the contextual menu
- Deleting multiple rows in Microsoft Excel using Shortcut
- Deleting multiple rows in Excel by cell color
- Delete multiple Rows by running a Macro
Read further to know how these tricks work.
1] Delete multiple rows in Microsoft Excel through the contextual menu
This trick works well when you intend to delete multiple consecutive rows, follow these steps:
1] Open Microsoft Excel sheet which has the data you wish to manipulate.
2] From the data, select all the rows you want to delete in one stretch.
3] Now, right-click on the selection to open the contextual menu.
4] Hit ‘Delete’.
5] Then select ‘Entire row’ from the delete options list and hit ‘Ok’.
Alternatively, you can also hit the ‘Home’ tab on the MS Excel worksheet and navigate to the ‘Cells’ group. Expand the options by clicking on the arrow button appearing next to the ‘Delete’ option. Now from the drop-down menu select ‘Delete Sheet Rows’ to remove the unwanted rows.
2] Delete multiple rows in Excel using Shortcut
Here we will use one of the most used shortcut keys i.e. ‘CTRL+ Minus (-) ‘. Let us understand how to use it:
- Select multiple rows in a single attempt
1] Select the unwanted rows in a single attempt on your worksheet to delete multiple rows in Microsoft Excel.
2] Now, press ‘Ctrl + – ‘to delete the selection made.
Please note: Now if the columns or rows are non-consecutive, you will have to select individual rows by pressing and holding the CTRL button on your keyboard and clicking individually on the unwanted rows.
Once the selection is completed hit the shortcut as mentioned.
- Mass Delete Data after row
In case you have a data set in which you need to delete all the data past row is 30 for example. This can easily be done by using the shortcut ‘CTRL + Shift + ?’ to select all rows from your starting point to last. Once the rows are selected hit delete either from the contextual menu or cell group from the Home tab or simply hit ‘CTRL + -. ‘
3] Delete multiple rows in Excel by cell color
Excel offers an amazing filter option that allows users to sort their data in different ways, including sorting by cell color. This option allows you to delete all the columns containing a specific background color.
1] Open Microsoft Excel sheet which has the data you wish to manipulate.
2] To apply filers to your table, go to the ‘Data’ tab, and hit the ‘Filter’ icon.
3] Now click on the small arrow next to the target column’s name.
4] Go to ‘Filter by color’ and select the correct cell color you wish to delete.
5] Click OK and you will see all the selected cells at the top.
6] Now select the filtered colored cells, right-click on them, and select ‘Delete Row’ from the options list.
The lines with the same color will be removed in no time.
4] Delete multiple Rows by running a Macro
For those who have tasks in Microsoft Excel that they need to do repeatedly, it can be easily be automated by recording a macro. A macro is an action or a set of actions that can be run by a user as many times he/she intends to. Hence you can create a macro to delete multiple rows in Microsoft excel too; here are the steps:
1] Select the targeted rows that you want to delete.
2] Press ‘ALT+F11’ keys on your keyboard to open the VBA editor.
3] Click the first project from the left-hand pane.
4]] Navigate to the menu bar and select ‘Insert > Module’.
5] Paste the following code in the new window to select multiple cells for deletion:
Sub Delete_Rows() 'delete multiple rows (rows 4, 5 and 6) Worksheets("Sheet1").Range("C4:C6").EntireRow.Delete End Sub
Alter the row number references (“C4:C6”) to select the specific rows which are unwanted.
6] Finally, run the macro script. You can either click the ‘Run’ button or press the shortcut F5 to delete multiple rows in Excel.
Done! Now execute the same Macro whenever there is a need to manipulate similar data.
Microsoft Excel is a one-stop destination for storing data that changes from time to time. However, updating the data can be a tedious task; even smaller things like deleting rows can become time-consuming and may demand a lot of effort. We hope this guide helps you and makes things a bit easier.
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