Replace with space excel

3 Ways to Replace Spaces Between Characters in Excel Text Strings

by Avantix Learning Team | Updated October 20, 2021

Applies to: Microsoft^® Excel^® 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021 and 365 (Windows)

In Excel, you can replace spaces in text strings with underscores, dashes or other values using Find and Replace, by creating a formula or by using Flash Fill.

Recommended article: How to Delete Blank Rows in Excel (5 Fast Ways to Remove Empty Rows)

Do you want to learn more about Excel? Check out our virtual classroom or in-person Excel courses >

1. Replacing spaces using Find and Replace

To replace spaces using Find and Replace:

1. Select the range of cells containing text strings that include spaces you want to replace.
2. Press Ctrl + H to display the Find and Replace dialog box. You can also click the Home tab in the Ribbon and select Replace in the Find & Select group.
3. In the Find what box, type a space.
4. In the Replace with box, type an underscore, dash, or other value. If you want to replace the space with nothing, leave the box blank.
5. Click Replace All. A dialog box appears indicating the number of replacements.
6. Click OK.

Below is the Find and Replace dialog box in Excel to replace spaces with underscores:

2. Replacing spaces using a formula

You can also create a formula and use the SUBSTITUTE function to replace spaces in text strings.

The Excel syntax for the SUBSTITUTE function is:

=SUBSTITUTE(text, old_text, new_text, [instance_number])

The text is typically a reference to a cell. The old text is the text you want to replace. The new text is the text you use as a replacement. Instance number is optional.

The simple syntax of the SUBSTITUTE function is:

=SUBSTITUTE(cell containing the data you want to replace, the value you want to remove, the value you want to use as a replacement, instance if required)

Text must appear in quotation marks or double quotes.

For example, if you want to replace spaces with underscores in cell B1 based on a text string in A1, the formula would be:

=SUBSTITUTE(A1,» «,»_»)

If you need to remove leading and trailing spaces, you can combine the SUBTITUTE function with the TRIM function as follows:

=SUBSTITUTE(TRIM(A1),» «,»_»)

To convert the formula to text, simply copy and paste the formula as values.

3. Replacing spaces using Flash Fill

If you have Excel 2013 or later, you can also try using Flash Fill to replace spaces. Because Flash Fill needs to see a pattern to the left, you will likely need to enter several examples before running Flash Fill.

To change spaces to underscores or other values:

1. Click in a cell to the right of the cell with the spaces you want to replace.
2. Enter the same entry as the original cell with underscores instead of spaces and press Enter.
3. Repeat for the next 3 or 4 cells below the first cell.
4. In the cell below the last entry, press Ctrl + E to run Flash Fill.

Be sure to check the entries generated by Flash Fill.

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More resources

How to Merge Cells in Excel (with Shortcuts)

How to Use Flash Fill in Excel (4 Ways with Shortcuts)

3 Excel Strikethrough Shortcuts to Cross Out Text or Values in Cells

How to Replace Blank Cells in Excel with a Value from the Cell Above

10 Excel Flash Fill Examples (Extract, Combine, Clean and Format Data with Flash Fill)

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Microsoft Excel: Intermediate / Advanced

Microsoft Excel: Data Analysis with Functions, Dashboards and What-If Analysis Tools

Microsoft Excel: Introduction to Visual Basic for Applications (VBA)

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This post will explain that how to find Alt + Enter characters or line breaks in the range of cells and then replace it with space character or other specific characters in excel.

When you want to create a line break in a cell in excel, you just need to press Alt + Enter keys. So you can insert one or more line breaks in a cell to make the contents easier to read.

You can use the Find and Replace function to replace all Alt +Enter with space character. Or you can use the VBA Macro code to achieve the same result quickly.

Find and Replace Line Break (Alt+Enter) with Space using Find and Replace Function

If you want to find a line break and then replace it with a space character, just do the following steps:

#1 select the cells that you want to find and replace

#2 go to HOME tab, click Find&Select command under Editing group, and click Replace… menu from the drop down list or just press Ctrl +H keys to open the Find and Replace dialog box.

#3 click in the Find what text box, press Ctrl +J to enter the line break.

#4 click in the Replace with text box, type a space character or other characters as you need.

#5 Click Replace All to replace the line breaks with space characters.

Find and Replace Line Break with Space using VBA

You can write an Excel VBA Macro to find alt +enter and then replace it with a space character, following these steps:

#1 click on “Visual Basic” command under DEVELOPER Tab.

#2 then the “Visual Basic Editor” window will appear.

#3 click “Insert” ->”Module” to create a new module.

#4 paste the below VBA code into the code window. Then clicking “Save” button.

Sub ReplaceAltEnter()
    Dim fRange As Range
    On Error Resume Next
    Set fRange = Application.InputBox("Select the range of Cells:", "Replace Alt Enter", Selection.Address, , , , , 8)
    If fRange Is Nothing Then Exit Sub
    fRange.WrapText = False
    fRange.Replace Chr(10), " ", xlPart, xlByColumns
End Sub

#5 back to the current worksheet, then run the above excel macro. Click Run button.

#6 select the range of cells that you want to find, click OK.

#7 Let’s see the result.

Watch Video – Remove Spaces in Excel

Leading and trailing spaces in Excel often leads to a lot of frustration. I can’t think of a situation where you may need these extra spaces, but it often finds its way into the excel spreadsheets.

There are many ways you can end up with these extra spaces – for example, as a part of the data download from a database, while copying data from a text document, or entered manually by mistake.

Leading, trailing, or double space between text could lead to a lot of serious issues.

For example, suppose you have a data set as shown below:

Now have a look at what happens when I use a VLOOKUP function to get the last name using the first name.

You might not be able to spot the difference with the naked eye that there is an extra trailing space in the name that is causing this error.

In this example, it was easy to spot the issue in such a small data set, but imagine having to check this for thousands of records.

To be on the safe side, it is always a good idea to clean your data and remove spaces in Excel.

How to Remove Spaces in Excel

In this tutorial, I will show you two ways to remove spaces in Excel.

• Using TRIM function.
• Using Find and Replace.

Using the TRIM Function

Excel TRIM function removes the leading and trailing spaces, and double spaces between text strings.

For example, in the above example, to remove spaces from the entire list if first names (in A2:A7), use the following formula in cell C1 and drag it down for all the first names:

=TRIM(A2)

Excel TRIM function would instantly remove all the leading and trailing spaces in the cell.

Once you have the cleaned data, copy it paste it as values in place of the original data.

This function is also helpful if you have more than one space character between words. It would remove the extra spaces such that the result always have one space character between words.

Excel TRIM function does a good job in removing spaces in Excel, however, it fails when you have non-printing characters (such as line breaks) in your data set. To remove non-printing characters, you can use a combination of TRIM and CLEAN functions.

If you have some text in cell A1 from which you want to remove spaces, use the below formula:

=TRIM(CLEAN(A1))

Non-printing characters can also result from =CHAR(160), which can not be removed by the CLEAN formula. So, if you want to be absolutely sure that you have all the extra spaces and non-printing characters, use the below formula:

=TRIM(CLEAN(SUBSTITUTE(A1,CHAR(160)," ")))

Remove Extra Spaces in Excel using FIND and REPLACE

You can remove spaces in Excel using the Find and Replace functionality.

This is a faster technique and can be useful in the given situations:

• When you want to remove double spaces.
• When you want to remove all the space characters.

Removing Double Spaces

Note that this technique cannot be used to remove leading or trailing spaces. It will find and replace double spaces irrespective of its position.

Here are the steps to do this:

This will replace all the double spaces with a single space character.

Note that this will only remove double spaces. If you have three space characters in between 2 words, it would result in 2 space characters (would remove one). In such cases, you can do this again to remove and any double spaces that might have been left.

Removing Single Spaces

To remove all the space characters in a data set, follow the below steps:

This will remove all the space characters in the selected data set.

Note that in this case, even if there are more than one space characters between two text strings or numbers, all of it would be removed.

Remove Line Breaks

You can also use Find and Replace to quickly remove line breaks.

Here are the steps to do this:

• Select the data.
• Go to Home –> Find and Select –> Replace (Keyboard Shortcut – Control + H).
• In the Find and Replace Dialogue Box:
  • Find What: Press Control + J (you may not see anything except for a blinking dot).
  • Replace With: Leave it empty.
• Replace All.

This will instantly remove all the line breaks from the data set that you selected.

Based on your situation, you can choose either method (formula or find and replace) to remove spaces in Excel.

You may also like the following Excel tutorials:

• Find and Remove Duplicates in Excel.
• 10 Super Neat Ways to Clean Data in Excel.
• MS Help – Remove Space and Non-printing characters.
• How to Remove the First Character from a String in Excel
• How to Remove Time from Date in Excel

Замените несколько пробелов одним пробелом с помощью формулы

В Excel обычная функция «Найти и заменить» может не подойти для решения этой проблемы, поэтому мы можем применить простую формулу для решения этой проблемы. Пожалуйста, сделайте так:

1. Введите эту формулу: = ОБРЕЗАТЬ (ПОДСТАВИТЬ (A2; СИМВОЛ (32); «»)) в пустую ячейку помимо значения вашей ячейки, см. снимок экрана:

2, Затем нажмите Enter нажмите клавишу, чтобы получить результат, и выберите ячейку B2, затем перетащите дескриптор заполнения в ячейки диапазона, в которых вы хотите применить эту формулу, и все лишние пробелы были удалены из текстовых строк, и только один пробел будет сохранен среди текст. Смотрите скриншот:

Замените несколько пробелов одним пробелом с помощью кода VBA

Если вас интересует код VBA, я могу создать для вас код, чтобы заменить несколько пробелов одним, сделайте следующее:

1. Пожалуйста, удерживайте ALT + F11 , чтобы открыть Microsoft Visual Basic для приложений окно.

2. Затем нажмите Вставить > Модулии вставьте следующий код в Модули Окно.

Код VBA: заменить несколько пробелов одним пространством

Sub replace_multiplespaces()
'Updateby Extendoffice
Dim x As Range
Dim Workx As Range
On Error Resume Next
xTitleId = "KutoolsforExcel"
Set Workx = Application.Selection
Set Workx = Application.InputBox("Range", xTitleId, Workx.Address, Type:=8)
    For Each x In Workx
        x = WorksheetFunction.Trim(x)
    Next x
End Sub

3, Затем нажмите F5 нажмите клавишу для запуска этого кода, и появится диалоговое окно, напоминающее вам о выборе диапазона данных, в котором вы хотите удалить лишние пробелы, см. снимок экрана:

4, Затем нажмите OK все лишние пробелы заменены одиночным пробелом среди текста.

Замените несколько пробелов одним пробелом, используя Kutools for Excel

Если у вас есть другие типы пробелов, которые необходимо удалить, например, удаление начальных и конечных пробелов, всех пробелов текста, я порекомендую мощный инструмент —Kutools for Excel, с его Удалить пробелы утилита, вы можете удалить любые пробелы по своему усмотрению, такие как начальный пробел, конечный пробел, все пробелы …

После установки Kutools for Excel, пожалуйста, сделайте следующее:

1. Выберите диапазон данных, в котором вы хотите удалить лишние пробелы.

2. Нажмите Кутулс > Текст > Удалить пробелы, см. снимок экрана:

3. В Удалить пробелы диалоговое окно, выберите Все лишние места из Тип пространства раздел, и вы можете просмотреть результат из предварительный просмотр панель, см. снимок экрана:

4, Затем нажмите Ok or Применить Кнопка, все лишние пробелы были удалены из ячейки и оставлен только один пробел среди текста.

Нажмите, чтобы узнать больше об этой функции удаления пробелов.

Нажмите, чтобы скачать Kutools for Excel и бесплатная пробная версия прямо сейчас!

Демонстрация: замена нескольких пробелов одним пробелом с помощью Kutools for Excel