Delete empty columns excel

Deleting blank columns and rows is a tedious task when you are working with a large set of data. And manual deletion is not even an option. In this article, you’ll learn to delete the blank columns in excel in some simple steps using Excel built-in tool named Go To Special. It is a quick and easy way to remove the blank columns. While this makes it a simple alternative to implement, be aware that it may cause your document to become misaligned. Always save a backup copy of your document before you start deleting cells to be safe. 

There are two ways to delete the blank columns in excel:

1. Manual selection and deletion
2. Deleting columns using Go To in-built tool from excel

Note: The tutorial is for Microsoft Excel 2013. You may find the same or different steps in other Microsoft Excel versions. 

Deleting blank columns in Excel using manual selection and deletion

We can delete blank columns in Excel using manual selection and deletion. This method works with all types of data but it is time taking, here I would suggest to use this method only when your data is less. If you have a large number of columns to delete then move on to the second method. Now we understand this method with the help of an example. So consider the example

Step 1: Select the blank columns, to select the blank columns press Shift and press the down arrow to the row upto you want to select the column. 

Step 2: Then right-click on the selected column. A drop-down will appear (as shown below). Select the Delete button. The selected column will be deleted.

Repeat the same steps for all the blank columns left in the required worksheet and delete them.

Deleting blank columns in Excel using Go To

We can also be deleting blank columns in MS Excel using Go To. So follow the following steps:

Step 1: Open the required Excel where you want to delete the blank columns.

Step 2: Select all the data by selecting the required rows and columns and press F5 from the keyboard. A dialogue box will appear(as shown below) and select Special. The special feature allows users to select all that has matching criteria as selected such as blanks, numbers, formulas. 

Step 3: After selecting special, a window (as shown below) will appear. Click on Blanks (as shown) and then select OK. This operation will select all the blank columns from the selected data.

Step 4: Then go to the Home tab>Cells Group>Delete i.e go to the Home tab and in the Cells group click on Delete(as shown below). The delete will help to delete the selected row, column, cell, and entire sheet.

Step 5: After selecting Delete a drop-down will appear (as shown in the image). Select Delete Cells.

Step 6: After selecting Delete Cells, a pop-up window will appear(as shown below). Select Shift cells left. This option will shift all the leftover cells left after deleting the blank columns. Click OK.

All the blank columns from the selected range will be deleted.

Sometimes you may get an Excel dataset that has blank columns.

In most cases, this is undesirable and you would want to delete them. While there is no dedicated feature in Excel to delete blank columns in Excel, this is quite easy to do.

In this tutorial, I will show you four techniques for removing blank columns in Excel.

Note: We strongly recommend that you make a backup of your workbook before using any of the techniques so that in case anything goes wrong you have a backup of your data to revert to. 

Method #1: Remove the Blank Columns Manually

In this method, we select each blank column and delete it manually. 

We use the following dataset which has two blank columns, columns C and G, to show how this technique works.

Below are the steps to delete blank columns manually:

1. Select column C by clicking its column header, press and hold down the Ctrl key, select column G by clicking its column header, and then release the Ctrl key. 

1. Right-click inside any of the selected columns and choose Delete on the shortcut menu that appears.

The empty columns are removed from the dataset.

This technique is the best for small datasets but inefficient for large datasets that may have tens or even hundreds of blank columns. 

Note: You can also select multiple columns in one go and then delete them together. To select multiple columns, hold the Control key and then select the columns you want to select by clicking the column headers

The following two methods come in handy when dealing with huge datasets.

Also read: Remove Blank Rows in Excel (5 Ways + VBA)

Method #2: Remove Blank Columns By Using a Formula With Find and Replace 

In this technique, we first identify the empty columns using a formula and then delete them.

We will use the following example dataset that has columns C and G that appear blank to show how this technique can be used.

We say that columns C and G appear blank because we may not be too sure that the columns do not contain data in some cells that are way down the columns or even contain data in form of empty strings.

That is why we want to use a formula to first identify the empty columns before deleting them. 

Below are the steps to identify all the columns that are empty:

1. Insert a helper row on top of the dataset by right-clicking the header of row 1 and selecting Insert on the shortcut menu that appears.

1. Enter the following formula in cell A1 of the helper row:

=IF(COUNTA(A2:A1048576)=0,"Blank","Not Blank")

1. Press the Enter button on the Formula bar to enter the formula.
2. Drag the fill handle across to column H to copy the formula to the columns.

The formula has returned the word Blank on top of all the empty columns. We can now remove the empty columns at once using the steps below:

1. Select all the cells in the helper row.
2. Press Ctrl + F to open the Find and Replace dialog box.
3. In the Find and Replace dialog box that opens, do the following:

• Type the word Blank in the Find what drop-down.
• Open the Within drop-down and select Sheet.
• Open the Search drop-down and select By Rows.
• Select the Match entire cell contents option.
• Click the Find All button.

This returns the cell references of all the cells that contain the word Blank.

1. Press Ctrl + A to select all the cells that contain the word Blank.

1. Right-click any of the selected cells and select Delete on the shortcut menu that appears.

1. In the Delete dialog box, select the Entire column option and then click OK.

All the blank columns are removed and data is shifted to the left. 

You can now remove the helper row. We now have our dataset where the empty columns have been deleted.

Explanation of the formula

=IF(COUNTA(A2:A1048576)=0,"Blank","Not Blank")

This formula uses the COUNTA and IF functions.

The COUNTA function tallies the number of non-empty cells in a range.

The IF function checks whether a condition is met and returns TRUE if it is met and FALSE if it is not met. 

• COUNTA(A2:A1048576)=0 In this part of the formula the COUNTA function returns TRUE if all the cells in the range A2: A1048576 are empty and returns FALSE if all the cells in the range are not empty. Note that the last row in all the new versions of Excel is row number 1,048,576.
• IF(COUNTA(A2:A1048576)=0, “Blank”, “Not Blank”) In this part of the formula the IF function returns Blank if the COUNTA function returns TRUE and returns Not Blank if the COUNTA function returns FALSE.

Note: If the columns only have column headers as in the example below, such columns are not considered blank. In such case, you need to modify the formula so it doesn’t include the headers

Method #3: Remove Blank Columns By Bringing Them Together Using the Sort Option 

If our dataset has tens or even hundreds of non-contiguous blank columns, it is efficient to first bring them close to each other before deleting them.

Below I have a dataset where I want to remove all the empty columns.

First, I would use a formula to identify all the columns that are blank, and then I will use the Sort option to bring all the blank columns together so these can be removed in one go.

Below are the steps to identify all the columns that are empty:

1. Insert a helper row on top of the dataset by right-clicking the header of row 1 and selecting Insert on the shortcut menu that appears.

1. Enter the following formula in cell A1 of the helper row:

=IF(COUNTA(A2:A1048576)=0,"Blank","Not Blank")

1. Copy the formula across column H to get the formula result on all the cells in the helper row.

The formula returns the word ‘Blank’ on top of all the empty columns, and the word ‘Not Blank’ in all the columns that are not blank.

Now that we know all the columns are empty, below are the steps to use the Sort option to bring all the empty columns together.

1. Select the helper row which contains formulas by clicking its header.

1. Click the Data tab, and select Sort in the Sort & Filter group.

1. Select Expand the selection in the Sort Warning dialog box that opens up and click the Sort button.

1. In the Sort dialog box, click the Options button.

1. Select Sort left to right in the Sort Options dialog box that appears and then click on the OK button.

1. In the Sort dialog box, open the Row Sort by drop-down and select Row 1, open the Sort On drop-down and select Cell Values, open the Order drop-down and select A to Z, and click OK:

All the blank columns are brought close to each other on the left of the worksheet as shown below:

1. Select the first blank column by clicking its header, press and hold down the Shift key, select the last blank column by clicking its header, and then release the Shift key.

1. Right-click the selected blank columns and select Delete on the shortcut menu that appears.

The blank columns are removed from the dataset:

We can now go ahead and remove the row we inserted on top of the dataset.

Your dataset is now free of blank columns.

Method #4: Remove Empty Columns Using VBA Macro Script

In this technique, we first create a subroutine in Excel VBA and then run the subroutine to remove the empty columns from the dataset.

We will use the below example dataset where columns C and G are blank and we need to remove these blank columns.

Follow the below steps to do this:

1. Click the Developer tab and then click the Visual Basic icon in the Code group.  This opens the Visual Basic Editor.

1. Open the Insert menu and click the Module item. This inserts a new module in the Visual Basic Editor.

1. Copy the following subroutine and paste it into the module.

'Code developed by Steve Scott from https://spreadsheetplanet.com
Sub RemoveBlankColumns()
Dim TargetRange As Range
Dim WholeColumn As Range
    Dim i As Long
    On Error Resume Next
    Set TargetRange = Application.InputBox( _
        "Select a range:", "Remove Blank Columns", _
        Application.Selection.Address, Type:=8)
If Not (TargetRange Is Nothing) Then
    Application.ScreenUpdating = False
    For i = TargetRange.Columns.Count To 1 Step -1
        Set WholeColumn = TargetRange.Cells(1, i).EntireColumn
            If Application.WorksheetFunction.CountA(WholeColumn) = 0 Then
                WholeColumn.Delete
            End If
    Next
Application.ScreenUpdating = True
End If
End Sub

1. Save the subprocedure and save the workbook as a Macro-Enabled workbook.
2. Click inside the procedure and press F5 to run the code.
3. When the InputBox pops up, switch to the worksheet containing the dataset you want to work with, select the dataset and click OK.

You will be taken back to the Visual Basic Editor.

1. Click the View Microsoft Excel button on the toolbar to switch back to the active worksheet.

You will see that the empty columns have been removed from the dataset:

In this tutorial, we have looked at four techniques for removing blank columns in Excel. We can remove the blank columns manually, use a formula to identify the blank columns then delete them, and use Excel VBA. We hope you found this information beneficial.

Other articles you may also like:

• Fill Blank Cells with 0 in Excel
• How to Delete Hidden Rows or Columns in Excel?
• Fill Blank Cells with Dash (-) in Excel
• How to Fill Blank Cells with Value above in Excel
• How to Compare Two Columns in Excel (using VLOOKUP & IF)
• How to Remove Duplicate Rows based on one Column in Excel?
• How to Convert Columns to Rows in Excel?

Удаление пустых строк и столбцов в данных

Пустые строки и столбцы могут быть головной болью в таблицах во многих случаях. Стандартные функции сортировки, фильтрации, подведения итогов, создания сводных таблиц и т.д. воспринимают пустые строки и столбцы как разрыв таблицы, не подхватывая данные, расположенные за ними далее. Если таких разрывов много, то удалять их вручную может оказаться весьма затратно, а удалить сразу всех «оптом», используя фильтрацию не получится, т.к. фильтр тоже будет «спотыкаться» на разрывах.

Давайте рассмотрим несколько способов решения этой задачи.

Способ 1. Поиск пустых ячеек

Это, может, и не самый удобный, но точно самый простой способ вполне достойный упоминания.

Предположим, что мы имеем дело вот с такой таблицей, содержащей внутри множество пустых строк и столбцов (для наглядности выделены цветом):

Допустим, мы уверены, что в первом столбце нашей таблицы (колонка B) всегда обязательно присутствует название какого-либо города. Тогда пустые ячейки в этой колонке будут признаком ненужных пустых строк. Чтобы быстро их все удалить делаем следующее:

1. Выделяем диапазон с городами (B2:B26)
2. Нажимаем клавишу F5 и затем кнопку Выделить (Go to Special) или выбираем на вкладке Главная — Найти и выделить — Выделить группу ячеек (Home — Find&Select — Go to special).
3. В открывшемся окне выбираем опцию Пустые ячейки (Blanks) и жмём ОК – должны выделиться все пустые ячейки в первом столбце нашей таблицы.
4. Теперь выбираем на вкладке Главная команду Удалить — Удалить строки с листа (Delete — Delete rows) или жмём сочетание клавиш Ctrl+минус — и наша задача решена.

Само-собой, от пустых столбцов можно избавиться совершенно аналогично, взяв за основу шапку таблицы.

Способ 2. Поиск незаполненных строк

Как вы, возможно, уже сообразили, предыдущий способ сработает только в том случае, если в наших данных обязательно присутствую полностью заполненные строки и столбцы, за которые можно зацепиться при поиске пустых ячеек. Но что, если такой уверенности нет, и в данных могут содержаться и пустые ячейки в том числе?

Взгляните, например, на следующую таблицу — как раз такой случай:

Здесь подход будет чуть похитрее:

1. Введём в ячейку A2 функцию СЧЁТЗ (COUNTA), которая вычислит количество заполненных ячеек в строке правее и скопируем эту формулу вниз на всю таблицу:

   

2. Выделим ячейку А2 и включим фильтр командой Данные — Фильтр (Data — Filter) или сочетанием клавиш Ctrl+Shift+L.
3. Отфильтруем по вычисленному столбцу нули, т.е. все строки, где нет данных.
4. Осталось выделить отфильтрованные строки и удалить их командой Главная — Удалить -’ Удалить строки с листа (Home — Delete — Delete rows) или сочетанием клавиш Ctrl+минус.
5. Отключаем фильтр и получаем наши данные без пустых строк.

К сожалению, со столбцами такой трюк уже не проделать – фильтровать по столбцам Excel пока не научился.

Способ 3. Макрос удаления всех пустых строк и столбцов на листе

Для автоматизации подобной задачи можно использовать и простой макрос. Нажмите сочетание клавиш Alt+F11 или выберите на вкладке Разработчик — Visual Basic (Developer — Visual Basic Editor). Если вкладки Разработчик не видно, то можно включить ее через Файл — Параметры — Настройка ленты (File — Options — Customize Ribbon).

В открывшемся окне редактора Visual Basic выберите команду меню Insert — Module и в появившийся пустой модуль скопируйте и вставьте следующие строки:

 
Sub DeleteEmpty()
    Dim r As Long, rng As Range

    'удаляем пустые строки
    For r = 1 To ActiveSheet.UsedRange.Row - 1 + ActiveSheet.UsedRange.Rows.Count
        If Application.CountA(Rows(r)) = 0 Then
            If rng Is Nothing Then Set rng = Rows(r) Else Set rng = Union(rng, Rows(r))
        End If
    Next r
    If Not rng Is Nothing Then rng.Delete
    
    'удаляем пустые столбцы
    Set rng = Nothing
    For r = 1 To ActiveSheet.UsedRange.Column - 1 + ActiveSheet.UsedRange.Columns.Count
        If Application.CountA(Columns(r)) = 0 Then
            If rng Is Nothing Then Set rng = Columns(r) Else Set rng = Union(rng, Columns(r))
        End If
    Next r
    If Not rng Is Nothing Then rng.Delete

End Sub

Закройте редактор и вернитесь в Excel. 

Теперь нажмите сочетание Alt+F8 или кнопку Макросы на вкладке Разработчик. В открывшемся окне будут перечислены все доступные вам в данный момент для запуска макросы, в том числе только что созданный макрос DeleteEmpty. Выберите его и нажмите кнопку Выполнить (Run) — все пустые строки и столбцы на листе будут мгновенно удалены.

Способ 4. Запрос Power Query

Ещё один способ решить нашу задачу и весьма частый сценарий — это удаление пустых строк и столбцов в Power Query.

Сначала давайте загрузим нашу таблицу в редактор запросов Power Query. Можно конвертировать её в динамическую «умную» сочетанием клавиш Ctrl+T или же просто выделить наш диапазон данных и дать ему имя (например Данные) в строке формул, преобразовав в именованный:

Теперь используем команду Данные — Получить данные — Из таблицы/диапазона (Data — Get Data — From table/range) и грузим всё в Power Query:

Дальше всё просто:

1. Удаляем пустые строки командой Главная — Сократить строки — Удалить строки — Удалить пустые строки (Home — Remove Rows — Remove empty rows).
2. Щёлкаем правой кнопкой мыши по заголовку первого столбца Город и выбираем в контекстном меню команду Отменить свёртывание других столбцов (Unpivot Other Columns). Наша таблица будет, как это технически правильно называется, нормализована — преобразована в три столбца: город, месяц и значение с пересечения города и месяца из исходной таблицы. Особенность этой операции в Power Query в том, что она пропускает в исходных данных пустые ячейки, что нам и требуется:

   

3. Теперь выполяем обратную операцию — сворачиваем полученную таблицу обратно в двумерную, чтобы вернуть ей исходный вид. Выделяем столбец с месяцами и на вкладке Преобразование выбираем команду Столбец сведения (Transform — Pivot Column). В открывшемся окне в качестве столбца значений выбираем последний (Значение), а в расширенных параметрах — операцию Не агрегировать (Don’t aggregate):

   

4. Останется выгрузить результат обратно в Excel командой Главная — Закрыть и загрузить — Закрыть и загрузить в… (Home — Close&Load — Close&Load to…)

   

Ссылки по теме

• Что такое макрос, как он работает, куда копировать текст макроса, как запустить макрос?
• Заполнение всех пустых ячеек в списке значениями вышестоящих ячеек
• Удаление всех пустых ячеек из заданного диапазона
• Удаление всех пустых строк на листе с помощью надстройки PLEX

When I was working as a data analyst years ago, part of my job was to download data from financial databases and then clean this data.

And one of the things I had to do while cleaning the data was to delete any blank columns in the data set.

While you can always manually select columns and delete them one by one, doing so in a large data set, where you have tens or hundreds of columns in every data set, would be inefficient and error-prone.

While there is no inbuilt functionality in Excel to date blank columns in one go, this can be achieved by using a combination of different functionalities.

In this tutorial, I will show you how to delete empty columns in Excel using a couple of different methods (including a simple VBA code).

Manually Deleting Blank Columns (Best with Small Datasets)

If you have a small data set such as the one shown below, it’s possible to manually select the blank columns, and delete them.

Below are the steps to delete blank columns manually in the above data set:

1. Select the blank column that you want to delete by clicking on the column header of that column

1. Once the blank column is selected, right-click on the selection
2. Click on the ‘Delete’ option

The above steps would instantly delete the selected blank column, and shift the remaining data set to the left.

Pro Tip: You can also select multiple blank columns in one go by holding the Control key on your keyboard (or the Command key if you’re using a Mac OS), and then manually clicking on the column headers of all the blank columns that you want to select. Once all the blank columns are selected, you can right-click and then click on the Delete option to delete all blank columns in one go

The biggest drawback of this method is that it is manual and inefficient (however, it could be a preferred method with small datasets).

In case you have a large data set with lots of blank columns, it’s better to use the methods covered next

Delete Blank Columns Using COUNT Function + Sort/Find and Replace

Excel has an inbuilt functionality that allows you to quickly select blank cells (using the Go-To special dialog box as we will see later in this tutorial), but there is no way to quickly select only those columns that are empty.

So we will have to use a workaround to first identify those columns that have only blank cells in them and then delete these blank columns.

Below I have a data set where I have the sales figures of different stores for different items. As you can see there are some columns that are completely empty in the below data set.

Now there are a couple of methods you can use to remove blank columns from the dataset. Let’s have a look at each of these methods in detail.

Using the COUNTA formula with FIND and Replace

With large datasets, a better way to delete all blank columns is by inserting a helper row at the top and using a COUNTA formula to identify all the columns that are empty.

Once you have done that, you can use this helper row to quickly select all the blank columns and delete them in one go.

Below I have a data set where I have some blank columns that I want to remove.

Here are the steps to do that using the COUNTA function with a helper row:

1. Select the first row of your data set by clicking on the row header (it’s the row number in grey on the left)

1. With the entire first row selected, right-click and then click on Insert. This will insert a new row above the first row of your data set

1. Enter the below formula in the first cell of the helper row and copy it for all the cells in the helper row

=IF(COUNTA(A2:A1048576)=0,"Blank","Not Blank")

The above formula uses the COUNTA function and calculates the total number of cells that are not empty in the specified range.

This formula is going to return a value greater than zero for all the columns that are not completely empty and zero for any column that is completely empty.

And then I used the IF function to return “Blank” in a cell if the entire column below it is empty, and “Not Blank” if it is not empty.

Now that I can identify all the empty columns by looking at the values in the helper row, I’m going to use the Find and Replace dialog box to quickly select all the cells that have the value “Blank”.

Once I have these cells selected, I can delete the entire column in one go.

Below are the steps two now select all the empty columns in one go:

1. Select all the cells in the helper row (the one where we entered the COUNTA formula)
2. Hold the Control key on your keyboard and then press the F key. This will open the Find and Replace dialog box. You can also open the Find and Replace dialog box by going to the ‘Home’ tab and then clicking on the ‘Find & Select’ option and then clicking on the ‘Find’ option

1. In the Find and Replace dialog box, enter the text ‘Blank’ in the ‘Find what’ field

1. Click the ‘Options’ button

1. In the ‘Look in’ drop-down, select ‘Values’
2. Check the option, ‘Match entire cell contents’

1. Click on the Find All button. This will find and return the cell references of all the cells that contain only the text ‘Blank’

1. Hold the Control key and press the A key. This will select all the cells that were given by the Find and Replace option

1. Right-click on any of the cells that have been selected (which would be any cell that has the text ‘Blank’ in it), and then click on ‘Delete’

1. In the Delete dialog box, select the ‘Entire Column’ option

1. Click OK

The above options would instantly delete all the blank columns in your data set.

Important Notes:

• COUNTA function would only return 0 if all the cells in the column are blank. in case there is a header in the column that has no values in it and needs to be removed, you need to adjust the formula so that the header row is not used. For example, you can use the formula =IF(COUNTA(A3:A1048576)=0,”Blank”,”Not Blank”) in case even blank columns have headers
• For this formula to work, the columns need to actually be blank. For example, if there are space characters in the cells in the blank column, while they might appear to be empty, the COUNTA function would not consider it as blank.

Using the COUNTA Formula with Sort Option

Let me show you another smart way you can use to quickly delete all the empty columns in Excel.

In this method, we will still be using the COUNTA function to get ‘Blank’ or ‘Not Blank’ in the helper row based on whether the column is empty or not.

But instead of using the Find and Replace dialog box, we will use the Sort option

Below I have the same data set and I want to remove the blank columns.

Below are the steps to insert a helper row to identify columns that are empty:

1. Select the first row of your data set by clicking on the row header
2. Right-click and then click on Insert. This will insert a new row above the first row of your data set
3. Enter the below formula in the first cell of the helper row and copy it for all the cells in the helper row

=IF(COUNTA(A2:A1048576)=0,"Blank","Not Blank")

The above formula would return the text “Blank” in cells where the column below it is empty and “Not Blank” when the column below it is not empty.

Now I can sort the entire data set using the helper row so that I get all the blank columns together and all the non-blank columns together

Below are the steps to do this:

1. Select the entire data set, including the helper row
2. Click the Data tab

1. In the Sort and Filter group, click on the Sort icon. This will open the Sort dialog box

1. Click the Options button

1. In the ‘Sort Options’ dialog box that opens up, click on the ‘Sort left to right’ option

1. Click OK
2. Click the ‘Sort by’ drop-down and then select the ‘Row 1’ option

1. Keep the Sort Order A to Z (in case it’s not that already)

1. Click Ok

The above steps would sort the data based on the helper row and bring all the blank columns together and non-blank columns together (as shown below).

Once you have all the blank columns together, you can select these in one go, and then delete them.

And once you have deleted the blank columns, you can remove the helper row as well.

Delete Blank Columns Using VBA

While the methods covered above work great, they do require a little bit of a setup using a helper row.

In case you are comfortable with VBA, you may find it a little easier to use as compared with the two helper row methods covered above.

Below is the VBA code that will do this for you:

'Code Developed by Sumit Bansal from https://TrumpExcel.com

Sub DeleteBlankColumns()

Dim EntireColumn As Range
On Error Resume Next

Application.ScreenUpdating = False

        For i = Selection.Columns.Count To 1 Step -1
            Set EntireColumn = Selection.Cells(1, i).EntireColumn
            If Application.WorksheetFunction.CountA(EntireColumn) = 0 Then
                EntireColumn.Delete
            End If
        Next

Application.ScreenUpdating = True

End Sub

The above VBA code uses a simple For-Next loop to go through each column in the selection, and check whether the COUNTA value for all the cells in that column is zero or not.

In case the COUNTA function value is 0, it means that the column is empty and the VBA macro code deletes that column.

And in case the value of the COUNTA function is more than 0, it means that the column is not empty and it is not removed.

How to Use the above VBA Macro Code?

Below are the steps to use the above VBA code to delete empty columns in Excel:

1. Select the data set that has the blank columns that you want to remove
2. Click the Developer tab in the ribbon.
3. Click the Visual Basic icon. This will open the VB editor back end in Excel.

1. Click the Insert option in the menu and then click on Module. This will insert a new module which would be visible in the Project Explorer pane. (In case you do not see the Project Explorer pane, click on the View option then click on Project Explorer)

1. Copy and paste the above VBA macro code into the module code window

1. To run the macro, place the cursor anywhere in the code and then click on the green play icon in the toolbar or use the F5 key on your keyboard

The above steps would instantly run the code which would remove all the empty columns from the selected data set.

Caution: The changes done by the VBA macro code in your worksheet cannot be undone. So it’s always a good idea to create a backup copy of your original data before using the VBA code to delete empty columns

Delete Blank Columns Using Go-To Special

One final method that I want to show you to delete empty columns in Excel is by using the Go To Special dialog box.

While this method is the fastest among all the methods covered in this tutorial so far, you need to be extremely cautious when using this method (especially if you’re working with large datasets).

This is because it can be error-prone and can lead to deleting columns that are not completely blank.

So while I’m covering this method in this tutorial, I would not recommend you use this method, instead use the other methods covered in this tutorial.

If you decide to use this method , you should be absolutely sure that your data set has no blank cells in the columns that are not completely blank

Let’s see how this method works.

Below I have a data set where I have some columns that are empty and I want to remove these columns.

Here are the steps to do this using go to special dialog box:

1. Select the entire data set
2. Press the F5 key on your keyboard. This will open the Go To dialog box. You can also get the same thing if you click on the Home tab and in the Editing group, click on the Find & Select option and then click on the Go To option

1. In the Go-To dialog box that opens up, click on the Special button

1. In the ‘Go To Special’ dialog box that opens up, click on the Blanks option

1. Click OK. The above steps would select all the blank cells in your data set.

1. Once you have these blank cells selected, right-click on any of these blank cells in the empty columns, and then click on the Delete option.

1. This will open the Delete dialog box where you can choose the Entire column option and then click on OK

The above steps would delete all the columns where there are blank cells

The Drawback of this method?

One big drawback of this method is that in case you have a couple of blank cells in otherwise filled columns, these would also be selected and these non-blank columns would also be deleted.

Below is an example where I have a couple of blank cells in the Printer and Scanner columns, and these were also selected when I use the ‘Go To Special’ dialog box.

Now if I go ahead with the above ‘Go To Special’ method and delete the empty columns, even the Printer and the Scanner columns would be deleted, which is not what I want.

This is why it is best to avoid this method to delete empty columns as it could also end up deleting some columns just because they had a few blank cells in them.

So these are some of the methods you can use to delete blank columns in Excel.

If you have a small data set and you only have a couple of blank columns, it is better to delete them manually.

And in case you have a large data set, you can either use the VBA method (which is fast and efficient), or use the helper row along with the sort feature or the find and replace feature to quickly select blank columns and delete them.

Note: The methods I have covered in this tutorial can also be used to delete blank rows in Excel. You would have to adjust the methods and the VBA code accordingly

Other Excel tutorials you may also like:

• Delete Blank Rows in Excel (with and without VBA)
• Fill Down Blank Cells Until the Next Value in Excel (3 Easy Ways)
• Insert a Blank Row after Every Row in Excel (or Every Nth Row)
• How to Highlight Blank Cells in Excel (in less than 10 seconds)
• How to Replace Blank Cells with Zeros in Excel Pivot Tables