Select all the data in excel

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To select all cells on a worksheet, use one of the following methods:

  • Click the Select All button.

    Select All button

  • Press CTRL+A.

    Note    If the worksheet contains data, and the active cell is above or to the right of the data, pressing CTRL+A selects the current region. Pressing CTRL+A a second time selects the entire worksheet.

Tip    If you want to select all cells in the active range, press CTRL+SHIFT+*.

Need more help?

Click the Select All button. Press CTRL+A. Note If the worksheet contains data, and the active cell is above or to the right of the data, pressing CTRL+A selects the current region. Pressing CTRL+A a second time selects the entire worksheet.

Contents

  • 1 What is the fastest way to select all data in Excel?
  • 2 How do I quickly select thousands of rows in Excel?
  • 3 How do I select all data in a column?
  • 4 How do I select all below in Excel?
  • 5 How do I select all cells to the right in Excel?
  • 6 How do you select all in Excel without dragging?
  • 7 How do I select 5000 rows in Excel?
  • 8 How do I select all without scrolling?
  • 9 How do you select a whole column in Excel?
  • 10 How do I select all below?
  • 11 How do I select all text in an Excel cell?
  • 12 How do you select all cells with data in a column Excel?
  • 13 How do you select a large range of cells in Excel without scrolling?
  • 14 How do I copy data from all cells in Excel?
  • 15 How do you select multiple cells in Excel without rows?
  • 16 How do I select 500 cells in Excel?
  • 17 How do I delete 1000 rows in Excel?
  • 18 How do I select multiple cells in Excel without a mouse?

What is the fastest way to select all data in Excel?

Select All Cells. Press Ctrl + A a second time to select all cells on the sheet. If your spreadsheet has multiple blocks of data, Excel does a pretty good job of selecting the block of data that is surrounding your cell when you press Ctrl + A .

How do I quickly select thousands of rows in Excel?

Select Multiple Entire Rows of Cells.
Continuing to hold down your mouse button, drag your cursor across all the rows you want to select. Or, if you prefer, you can hold down your Shift key and click the bottom-most row you want to select.

How do I select all data in a column?

Ctrl + Space is the keyboard is the shortcut to select an entire column. Select the column header and press Shift + End + ↓ (Down Arrow) to select that column. Ctrl + Space is the keyboard is the shortcut to select an entire column.

How do I select all below in Excel?

Click on the top cell, then press Ctrl and hold the space bar. All cells beneath the cell initially chosen will be highlighted.

How do I select all cells to the right in Excel?

If we’d like to select all the cells to the right within a data region, we simply hold Control + Shift and press the right arrow key. If we now press Control + Shift and the down arrow key, it selects the whole region.

How do you select all in Excel without dragging?

To select a range of cells without dragging the mouse:

  1. Click in the cell which is to be one corner of the range of cells.
  2. Move the mouse to the opposite corner of the range of cells.
  3. Hold down the Shift key and click.

How do I select 5000 rows in Excel?

Select one or more rows and columns

  1. Select the letter at the top to select the entire column. Or click on any cell in the column and then press Ctrl + Space.
  2. Select the row number to select the entire row.
  3. To select non-adjacent rows or columns, hold Ctrl and select the row or column numbers.

How do I select all without scrolling?

“Easily select all the way down without the mouse/scrolling”
By default you can start this tool with the shortcut Control+Alt+L.

How do you select a whole column in Excel?

Select any cell in any column. Press Ctrl + Space shortcut keys on the keyboard. The whole column will be highlighted in excel to show the selected column, as shown below in the picture. You can also say that this is a shortcut to highlight column in excel.

How do I select all below?

Click to put the cursor on where you want to select everything below, the press the Ctrl + Shift + End keys at the same time. Then all contents after the cursor are selected immediately.

How do I select all text in an Excel cell?

Selecting Cells that contain specific Text

  1. #1 go to HOME tab, click Find & Select command under Editing group. And the Find and Replace dialog will open.
  2. #2 type one text string that you want to find in your data.
  3. #3 click Find All button.
  4. #4 press Ctrl +A keys in your keyboard to select all searched values.

How do you select all cells with data in a column Excel?

You can also click anywhere in the table column, and then press CTRL+SPACEBAR, or you can click the first cell in the table column, and then press CTRL+SHIFT+DOWN ARROW. Note: Pressing CTRL+SPACEBAR once selects the table column data; pressing CTRL+SPACEBAR twice selects the entire table column.

How do you select a large range of cells in Excel without scrolling?

You can do this two ways:

  1. Click into the cell in the upper left corner of the range.
  2. Click into the Name Box and type the cell in the lower right corner of the range.
  3. Press SHIFT + Enter.
  4. Excel will select the entire range.

How do I copy data from all cells in Excel?

Select the cell or range of cells. Select Copy or press Ctrl + C. Select Paste or press Ctrl + V.
Copy cell values, cell formats, or formulas only

  1. To paste values only, click Values.
  2. To paste cell formats only, click Formatting.
  3. To paste formulas only, click Formulas.

How do you select multiple cells in Excel without rows?

Just press and hold down the Ctrl key, and you can select multiple non-adjacent cells or ranges with mouse clicking or dragging in active worksheet. This does not require holding down keys during selection.

How do I select 500 cells in Excel?

Here are the steps to select 500 cells in one go:

  1. Click in the Name Box.
  2. Type A1:A500.
  3. Hit Enter.

How do I delete 1000 rows in Excel?

How can I delete multiple rows in Excel?

  1. Open the Excel sheet and select all the rows that you want to delete.
  2. Right-click the selection and click Delete or Delete rows from the list of options.
  3. Alternatively, click the Home tab, navigate to the Cells group, and click Delete.
  4. A drop-down menu will open on your screen.

How do I select multiple cells in Excel without a mouse?

No Mouse Needed
Start by selecting cell B4. To select the first block of data, hold down Ctrl+Shift and press the down arrow (↓) and then the right arrow (→). This common keyboard trick selects all the way down to the bottom and the right edge of the data.

Содержание

  1. Select cell contents in Excel
  2. Select one or more cells
  3. Select one or more rows and columns
  4. Select table, list or worksheet
  5. Need more help?
  6. How to Select All Cells With Values in Excel
  7. Select All Cells With Values
  8. Select cell contents in Excel
  9. Select one or more cells
  10. Select one or more rows and columns
  11. Select table, list or worksheet
  12. Need more help?
  13. Selecting all the content in your Excel spreadsheet
  14. 7 Easy Ways to Select Multiple Cells in Excel
  15. Select Multiple Cells (that are all contiguous)
  16. Select Rows/Columns
  17. Select a Single Row/Column
  18. Select Multiple Rows/Columns
  19. Select Multiple Non-Adjacent Rows/Columns
  20. Select All the Cells in the Current Table/Data
  21. Select All the Cells in the Worksheet
  22. Select Multiple Non-Contiguous Cells
  23. Select Cells Using Name Box
  24. Select a Named Range

Select cell contents in Excel

In Excel, you can select cell contents of one or more cells, rows and columns.

Note: If a worksheet has been protected, you might not be able to select cells or their contents on a worksheet.

Select one or more cells

Click on a cell to select it. Or use the keyboard to navigate to it and select it.

To select a range, select a cell, then with the left mouse button pressed, drag over the other cells.

Or use the Shift + arrow keys to select the range.

To select non-adjacent cells and cell ranges, hold Ctrl and select the cells.

Select one or more rows and columns

Select the letter at the top to select the entire column. Or click on any cell in the column and then press Ctrl + Space.

Select the row number to select the entire row. Or click on any cell in the row and then press Shift + Space.

To select non-adjacent rows or columns, hold Ctrl and select the row or column numbers.

Select table, list or worksheet

To select a list or table, select a cell in the list or table and press Ctrl + A.

To select the entire worksheet, click the Select All button at the top left corner.

Note: In some cases, selecting a cell may result in the selection of multiple adjacent cells as well. For tips on how to resolve this issue, see this post How do I stop Excel from highlighting two cells at once? in the community.

Click the cell, or press the arrow keys to move to the cell.

A range of cells

Click the first cell in the range, and then drag to the last cell, or hold down SHIFT while you press the arrow keys to extend the selection.

You can also select the first cell in the range, and then press F8 to extend the selection by using the arrow keys. To stop extending the selection, press F8 again.

A large range of cells

Click the first cell in the range, and then hold down SHIFT while you click the last cell in the range. You can scroll to make the last cell visible.

All cells on a worksheet

Click the Select All button.

To select the entire worksheet, you can also press CTRL+A.

Note: If the worksheet contains data, CTRL+A selects the current region. Pressing CTRL+A a second time selects the entire worksheet.

Nonadjacent cells or cell ranges

Select the first cell or range of cells, and then hold down CTRL while you select the other cells or ranges.

You can also select the first cell or range of cells, and then press SHIFT+F8 to add another nonadjacent cell or range to the selection. To stop adding cells or ranges to the selection, press SHIFT+F8 again.

Note: You cannot cancel the selection of a cell or range of cells in a nonadjacent selection without canceling the entire selection.

An entire row or column

Click the row or column heading.

2. Column heading

You can also select cells in a row or column by selecting the first cell and then pressing CTRL+SHIFT+ARROW key (RIGHT ARROW or LEFT ARROW for rows, UP ARROW or DOWN ARROW for columns).

Note: If the row or column contains data, CTRL+SHIFT+ARROW key selects the row or column to the last used cell. Pressing CTRL+SHIFT+ARROW key a second time selects the entire row or column.

Adjacent rows or columns

Drag across the row or column headings. Or select the first row or column; then hold down SHIFT while you select the last row or column.

Nonadjacent rows or columns

Click the column or row heading of the first row or column in your selection; then hold down CTRL while you click the column or row headings of other rows or columns that you want to add to the selection.

The first or last cell in a row or column

Select a cell in the row or column, and then press CTRL+ARROW key (RIGHT ARROW or LEFT ARROW for rows, UP ARROW or DOWN ARROW for columns).

The first or last cell on a worksheet or in a Microsoft Office Excel table

Press CTRL+HOME to select the first cell on the worksheet or in an Excel list.

Press CTRL+END to select the last cell on the worksheet or in an Excel list that contains data or formatting.

Cells to the last used cell on the worksheet (lower-right corner)

Select the first cell, and then press CTRL+SHIFT+END to extend the selection of cells to the last used cell on the worksheet (lower-right corner).

Cells to the beginning of the worksheet

Select the first cell, and then press CTRL+SHIFT+HOME to extend the selection of cells to the beginning of the worksheet.

More or fewer cells than the active selection

Hold down SHIFT while you click the last cell that you want to include in the new selection. The rectangular range between the active cell and the cell that you click becomes the new selection.

Need more help?

You can always ask an expert in the Excel Tech Community or get support in the Answers community.

Источник

How to Select All Cells With Values in Excel

In this tutorial, you will learn how to select all cells with values in Excel.

Select All Cells With Values

In Excel, it’s easy to select all cells in a sheet or range, but it’s also possible to select all cells containing values at once with just a little more work. Say you have the data set below, with some values missing for Sales Amount (Column D). The following example will show how to select all cells in the range at once, excluding those without values.

  1. Select the entire range (e.g., B3:D12) and in the Ribbon, go to Home > Find & Select > Go To Special.

  1. In the Go To Special window, select Constants and click OK.
    When you select Constants, Numbers, Text, Logicals, and Errors are all checked by default. This means that all four types of data will be selected. If there are some types you don’t want to include, uncheck them.

As a result, cells that are not empty are selected, while empty cells (D5, D7, D9, and D10) are not.

Источник

Select cell contents in Excel

In Excel, you can select cell contents of one or more cells, rows and columns.

Note: If a worksheet has been protected, you might not be able to select cells or their contents on a worksheet.

Select one or more cells

Click on a cell to select it. Or use the keyboard to navigate to it and select it.

To select a range, select a cell, then with the left mouse button pressed, drag over the other cells.

Or use the Shift + arrow keys to select the range.

To select non-adjacent cells and cell ranges, hold Ctrl and select the cells.

Select one or more rows and columns

Select the letter at the top to select the entire column. Or click on any cell in the column and then press Ctrl + Space.

Select the row number to select the entire row. Or click on any cell in the row and then press Shift + Space.

To select non-adjacent rows or columns, hold Ctrl and select the row or column numbers.

Select table, list or worksheet

To select a list or table, select a cell in the list or table and press Ctrl + A.

To select the entire worksheet, click the Select All button at the top left corner.

Note: In some cases, selecting a cell may result in the selection of multiple adjacent cells as well. For tips on how to resolve this issue, see this post How do I stop Excel from highlighting two cells at once? in the community.

Click the cell, or press the arrow keys to move to the cell.

A range of cells

Click the first cell in the range, and then drag to the last cell, or hold down SHIFT while you press the arrow keys to extend the selection.

You can also select the first cell in the range, and then press F8 to extend the selection by using the arrow keys. To stop extending the selection, press F8 again.

A large range of cells

Click the first cell in the range, and then hold down SHIFT while you click the last cell in the range. You can scroll to make the last cell visible.

All cells on a worksheet

Click the Select All button.

To select the entire worksheet, you can also press CTRL+A.

Note: If the worksheet contains data, CTRL+A selects the current region. Pressing CTRL+A a second time selects the entire worksheet.

Nonadjacent cells or cell ranges

Select the first cell or range of cells, and then hold down CTRL while you select the other cells or ranges.

You can also select the first cell or range of cells, and then press SHIFT+F8 to add another nonadjacent cell or range to the selection. To stop adding cells or ranges to the selection, press SHIFT+F8 again.

Note: You cannot cancel the selection of a cell or range of cells in a nonadjacent selection without canceling the entire selection.

An entire row or column

Click the row or column heading.

2. Column heading

You can also select cells in a row or column by selecting the first cell and then pressing CTRL+SHIFT+ARROW key (RIGHT ARROW or LEFT ARROW for rows, UP ARROW or DOWN ARROW for columns).

Note: If the row or column contains data, CTRL+SHIFT+ARROW key selects the row or column to the last used cell. Pressing CTRL+SHIFT+ARROW key a second time selects the entire row or column.

Adjacent rows or columns

Drag across the row or column headings. Or select the first row or column; then hold down SHIFT while you select the last row or column.

Nonadjacent rows or columns

Click the column or row heading of the first row or column in your selection; then hold down CTRL while you click the column or row headings of other rows or columns that you want to add to the selection.

The first or last cell in a row or column

Select a cell in the row or column, and then press CTRL+ARROW key (RIGHT ARROW or LEFT ARROW for rows, UP ARROW or DOWN ARROW for columns).

The first or last cell on a worksheet or in a Microsoft Office Excel table

Press CTRL+HOME to select the first cell on the worksheet or in an Excel list.

Press CTRL+END to select the last cell on the worksheet or in an Excel list that contains data or formatting.

Cells to the last used cell on the worksheet (lower-right corner)

Select the first cell, and then press CTRL+SHIFT+END to extend the selection of cells to the last used cell on the worksheet (lower-right corner).

Cells to the beginning of the worksheet

Select the first cell, and then press CTRL+SHIFT+HOME to extend the selection of cells to the beginning of the worksheet.

More or fewer cells than the active selection

Hold down SHIFT while you click the last cell that you want to include in the new selection. The rectangular range between the active cell and the cell that you click becomes the new selection.

Need more help?

You can always ask an expert in the Excel Tech Community or get support in the Answers community.

Источник

Selecting all the content in your Excel spreadsheet

Not being an Excel guru, I tend to do things manually instead of using features that can make things a LOT faster… such as selecting all the data in an Excel spreadsheet. I’ve been known to do a lot of scrolling to find the end points and dragging to select everything. It’s a lot easier just to use the CTRL-A keyboard shortcut!

In this example spreadsheet, I want to select just the cells with data in them. I need to select one of the cells that has data (in this case, A5), and press CTRL-A:

When I do that, Excel automatically selects just the range of cells that contain data:

However, if I click CTRL-A again, Excel selects ALL the cells in the worksheet (if you need that for some reason):

By remembering this keyboard shortcut, you can save a ton of time trying to select just the data instead of searching for it.

Источник

7 Easy Ways to Select Multiple Cells in Excel

Selecting a cell is one of the most basic things users do in Excel.

There are many different ways to select a cell in Excel – such as using the mouse or the keyboard (or a combination of both).

In this article, I would show you how to select multiple cells in Excel. These cells could all be together (contiguous) or separated (non-contiguous)

While this is quite simple, I’m sure you’ll pick up a couple of new tricks to help you speed up your work and be more efficient.

So let’s get started!

This Tutorial Covers:

Select Multiple Cells (that are all contiguous)

If you know how to select one cell in Excel, I’m sure you also know how to select multiple cells.

But let me still cover this anyway.

Suppose you want to select cells A1:D10.

Below are the steps to do this:

  1. Place the cursor on cell A1
  2. Select cell A1 (by using the left mouse button). Keep the mouse button pressed.
  3. Drag the cursor till cell D10 (so that it covers all the cells between A1 and D10)
  4. Leave the mouse button

Now let’s see some more cases.

Select Rows/Columns

A lot of times, you will be required to select an entire row or column (or even multiple rows or columns). These could be to hide or delete these rows/columns, move it around in the worksheet, highlight it, etc.

Just like you can select a cell in Excel by placing the cursor and clicking the mouse, you can also select a row or a column by simply clicking on the row number or column alphabet.

Let’s go through each of these cases.

Select a Single Row/Column

Here is how you can select an entire row in Excel:

  1. Bring the cursor over the row number of the row that you want to select
  2. Use the left mouse-click to select the entire row

When you select the entire row, you will see that the color of that selection changes (it becomes a bit darker as compared to the rest of the cell in the worksheet).

Just like we have selected a row in Excel, you can also select a column (where instead of clicking on the row number, you have to click on the column alphabet, which is at the top of the column).

Select Multiple Rows/Columns

Now, what if you don’t want to select just one row.

What if you want to select multiple rows?

For example, let’s say that you want to select row number 2, 3, and 4 at the same time.

Here is how to do that:

  1. Place the cursor over row number 2 in the worksheet
  2. Press the mouse left button while your cursor is on row number two (keep the mouse button pressed)
  3. Keep the mouse left-button still pressed and drag the cursor down till row 4
  4. Leave the mouse button

You’ll see that this would select three adjacent rows that you covered through your mouse.

Just like we have selected three adjacent rows, you can follow the same steps to select multiple columns as well.

Select Multiple Non-Adjacent Rows/Columns

What if you want to select multiple rows, but these are not-adjacent.

For example, you may want to select row numbers 2, 4, 7.

In such a case you cannot use the mouse drag technique covered above because it would select all the rows in between.

To do this, you will have to use a combination of keyboard and mouse.

Here is how to select non-adjacent multiple rows in Excel:

  1. Place the cursor over row number 2 in the worksheet
  2. Hold the Control key on your keyboard
  3. Press the mouse left button while your cursor is on row number 2
  4. Leave the mouse button
  5. Place the cursor over the next row you want to select (row 4 in this case),
  6. Hold the Control key on your keyboard
  7. Press the mouse left button while your cursor is on row number 4. Once row 4 is also selected, leave the mouse button
  8. Repeat the same to select row 7 as well
  9. Leave the Control key

The above steps would select multiple non-adjacent rows in the worksheet.

You can use the same method to select multiple non-adjacent columns.

Select All the Cells in the Current Table/Data

Most of the time, when you have to select multiple cells in Excel, these would be the cells in a specific table or a dataset.

You can do this by using a simple keyboard shortcut.

Below are the steps to select all the cells in the current table:

  1. Select any cell within the data set
  2. Hold the Ctrl key and then press the A key

The above steps would select all the cells in the data set (where Excel considers this data set to extend until it encounters a blank row or column).

As soon as Excel encounters a blank row or blank column, it would consider this as the end of the data set (so anything beyond the blank row/column will not be selected)

Select All the Cells in the Worksheet

Another common task that is often done is to select all the cells in the worksheet.

I often work with data downloaded from different databases, and often this data is formatted in a certain way. And my first step as soon as I get this data is to select all the cells and remove all the formatting.

Here is how you can select all the cells in the active worksheet:

  1. Select the worksheet in which you want to select all the cells
  2. Click on the small inverted triangle at the top left part of the worksheet

This would instantly select all the cells in the entire worksheet (note that this would not select any object such as a chart or shape in the worksheet).

And if you are a keyboard shortcut aficionado, you can use the below shortcut:

If you have selected a blank cell that does not have any data around it, you don’t need to press the A key twice (just use Control-A).

Select Multiple Non-Contiguous Cells

The more you work with Excel, the more you would have a need to select multiple non-contiguous cells (such as A2, A4, A7, etc.)

Below I have an example where I only want to select the records for the US. And since these are not adjacent to each other, I somehow need to figure out how to select all these multiple cells at the same time.

Again, you can do this easily using a combination of keyboard and mouse.

Below are the steps to do this:

  1. Hold the Control key on the keyboard
  2. One by one, select all the non-contiguous cells (or range of cells) that you want to remain selected
  3. When done, leave the Control key

The above technique also works when you want to select non-contiguous rows or columns. You can simply hold the Control key and select the non-adjacent rows/columns.

Select Cells Using Name Box

So far we have seen examples where we could manually select the cells because they were close by.

But in some cases, you may have to select multiple cells or rows/columns that are far off in the worksheet.

Of course, you can do that manually, but you’ll soon realize that it’s time-consuming and error-prone.

If it’s something you have to do quite often (that is, select the same cells or rows/columns), you can use the Name Box to do it a lot faster.

Name Box is the small field that you have on the left of the formula bar in Excel.

When you type a cell reference (or a range reference) in the name box, it selects all the specified cells.

For example, let’s say I want to select cell A1, K3, and M20

Since these are quite far off, if I try and select these using the mouse, I would have to scroll a little bit.

This may be justified if you only have to do it once in a while, but in case you have to say select the same cells often, you can use the name box instead.

Below are the steps to select multiple cells using the name box:

  1. Click on the name box
  2. Enter the cell references that you want to select (separated by comma)
  3. Hit the enter key

The above steps would instantly select all the cells that you have entered in the name box.

Of these selected cells, one would be the active cell (and the cell reference of the active cell would now be visible in the name box).

Select a Named Range

If you have created a named range in Excel, you can also use the Name Box to refer to the entire named range (instead of using the cell references as shown in the method above)

If you don’t know what a Named Range is, it’s when you assign a name to a cell or a range of cells and then use the name instead of the cell reference in formulas.

Below are the steps to quickly create a Named Range in Excel:

  1. Select the cells that you want to be included in the Named Range
  2. Click on the Name box (which is the field adjacent to the formula bar)
  3. Enter the name that you want to assign to the selected range of cells (you can’t have spaces in the name)
  4. Hit the Enter key

The above steps would create a Named Range for the cells that you selected.

Now, if you want to quickly select these same cells, instead of doing that manually you can simply go to the Name box and enter the name of the named range (or click on the dropdown icon and select the name from there)

This would instantly select all the cells that are part of that Named Range.

So, these are some of the methods that you can use to select multiple cells in Excel.

I hope you found this tutorial useful.

Other Excel tutorials you may like:

Источник

I have some data in an Excel Worksheet. I would like to select all the cells which contain data.

For example, for a worksheet with data in cells A1, A2, A3, B1, B2, B3, C1, C2, and C3, how can I select just this 3×3 grid, and not the entire sheet?

I am looking for something like ActiveSheet.SelectUsedCells.

Brett Donald's user avatar

Brett Donald

5,3774 gold badges22 silver badges51 bronze badges

asked Apr 30, 2009 at 8:43

Marius's user avatar

1

Here you go:

Range("A1").Select
Range(Selection, Selection.End(xlToRight)).Select
Range(Selection, Selection.End(xlDown)).Select

Or if you don’t necessarily start at A1:

Range("C6").Select  ' Select a cell that you know you populated'
Selection.End(xlUp).Select
Selection.End(xlToLeft).Select
Range(Selection, Selection.End(xlToRight)).Select
Range(Selection, Selection.End(xlDown)).Select

answered Apr 30, 2009 at 9:00

RichieHindle's user avatar

RichieHindleRichieHindle

269k47 gold badges356 silver badges398 bronze badges

You might also want to look at the CurrentRegion property. This will select a contiguous range that is bounded by empty cells, so might be a more elegant way of doing this, depending on the format of your worksheet.

For example:

Range("A1").CurrentRegion.Select

cyberponk's user avatar

cyberponk

1,51617 silver badges19 bronze badges

answered Apr 30, 2009 at 9:52

Lunatik's user avatar

LunatikLunatik

3,8286 gold badges37 silver badges52 bronze badges

Selecting a cell is one of the most basic things users do in Excel.

There are many different ways to select a cell in Excel – such as using the mouse or the keyboard (or a combination of both).

In this article, I would show you how to select multiple cells in Excel. These cells could all be together (contiguous) or separated (non-contiguous)

While this is quite simple, I’m sure you’ll pick up a couple of new tricks to help you speed up your work and be more efficient.

So let’s get started!

Select Multiple Cells (that are all contiguous)

If you know how to select one cell in Excel, I’m sure you also know how to select multiple cells.

But let me still cover this anyway.

Suppose you want to select cells A1:D10.

Below are the steps to do this:

  1. Place the cursor on cell A1
  2. Select cell A1 (by using the left mouse button). Keep the mouse button pressed.
  3. Drag the cursor till cell D10 (so that it covers all the cells between A1 and D10)
  4. Leave the mouse button

Select Multiple Cells contiguous cells

Easy-peasy, right?

Now let’s see some more cases.

Select Rows/Columns

A lot of times, you will be required to select an entire row or column (or even multiple rows or columns). These could be to hide or delete these rows/columns, move it around in the worksheet, highlight it, etc.

Just like you can select a cell in Excel by placing the cursor and clicking the mouse, you can also select a row or a column by simply clicking on the row number or column alphabet.

Let’s go through each of these cases.

Select a Single Row/Column

Here is how you can select an entire row in Excel:

  1. Bring the cursor over the row number of the row that you want to selectPlace the cursor on the row number that you want to select
  2. Use the left mouse-click to select the entire rowEntire row selected

When you select the entire row, you will see that the color of that selection changes (it becomes a bit darker as compared to the rest of the cell in the worksheet).

Just like we have selected a row in Excel, you can also select a column (where instead of clicking on the row number, you have to click on the column alphabet, which is at the top of the column).

Also read: Select Till End of Data in a Column in Excel (Shortcuts)

Select Multiple Rows/Columns

Now, what if you don’t want to select just one row.

What if you want to select multiple rows?

For example, let’s say that you want to select row number 2, 3, and 4 at the same time.

Here is how to do that:

  1. Place the cursor over row number 2 in the worksheet
  2. Press the mouse left button while your cursor is on row number two (keep the mouse button pressed)
  3. Keep the mouse left-button still pressed and drag the cursor down till row 4
  4. Leave the mouse button

Select multiple rows in Excel

You’ll see that this would select three adjacent rows that you covered through your mouse.

Just like we have selected three adjacent rows, you can follow the same steps to select multiple columns as well.

Select Multiple Non-Adjacent Rows/Columns

What if you want to select multiple rows, but these are not-adjacent.

For example, you may want to select row numbers 2, 4, 7.

In such a case you cannot use the mouse drag technique covered above because it would select all the rows in between.

To do this, you will have to use a combination of keyboard and mouse.

Here is how to select non-adjacent multiple rows in Excel:

  1. Place the cursor over row number 2 in the worksheet
  2. Hold the Control key on your keyboard
  3. Press the mouse left button while your cursor is on row number 2
  4. Leave the mouse button
  5. Place the cursor over the next row you want to select (row 4 in this case),
  6. Hold the Control key on your keyboard
  7. Press the mouse left button while your cursor is on row number 4. Once row 4 is also selected, leave the mouse button
  8. Repeat the same to select row 7 as well
  9. Leave the Control key

Select multiple non adjacent rows

The above steps would select multiple non-adjacent rows in the worksheet.

You can use the same method to select multiple non-adjacent columns.

Select All the Cells in the Current Table/Data

Most of the time, when you have to select multiple cells in Excel, these would be the cells in a specific table or a dataset.

You can do this by using a simple keyboard shortcut.

Below are the steps to select all the cells in the current table:

  1. Select any cell within the data setSelect any cell in the table
  2. Hold the Ctrl key and then press the A keyAll cells in the table are selected

The above steps would select all the cells in the data set (where Excel considers this data set to extend until it encounters a blank row or column).

As soon as Excel encounters a blank row or blank column, it would consider this as the end of the data set (so anything beyond the blank row/column will not be selected)

Select All the Cells in the Worksheet

Another common task that is often done is to select all the cells in the worksheet.

I often work with data downloaded from different databases, and often this data is formatted in a certain way. And my first step as soon as I get this data is to select all the cells and remove all the formatting.

Here is how you can select all the cells in the active worksheet:

  1. Select the worksheet in which you want to select all the cells
  2. Click on the small inverted triangle at the top left part of the worksheetInverted gray triangle to select all the cells in the worksheet

This would instantly select all the cells in the entire worksheet (note that this would not select any object such as a chart or shape in the worksheet).

And if you are a keyboard shortcut aficionado, you can use the below shortcut:

Control + A + A (hold the control key and press the A key twice)

If you have selected a blank cell that does not have any data around it, you don’t need to press the A key twice (just use Control-A).

Select Multiple Non-Contiguous Cells

The more you work with Excel, the more you would have a need to select multiple non-contiguous cells (such as A2, A4, A7, etc.)

Below I have an example where I only want to select the records for the US. And since these are not adjacent to each other, I somehow need to figure out how to select all these multiple cells at the same time.

Data with country records in non adjacent rows

Again, you can do this easily using a combination of keyboard and mouse.

Below are the steps to do this:

  1. Hold the Control key on the keyboard
  2. One by one, select all the non-contiguous cells (or range of cells) that you want to remain selected
  3. When done, leave the Control key

Non adjacent ranges selected

The above technique also works when you want to select non-contiguous rows or columns. You can simply hold the Control key and select the non-adjacent rows/columns.

Select Cells Using Name Box

So far we have seen examples where we could manually select the cells because they were close by.

But in some cases, you may have to select multiple cells or rows/columns that are far off in the worksheet.

Of course, you can do that manually, but you’ll soon realize that it’s time-consuming and error-prone.

If it’s something you have to do quite often (that is, select the same cells or rows/columns), you can use the Name Box to do it a lot faster.

Name Box is the small field that you have on the left of the formula bar in Excel.

NameBox in Excel

When you type a cell reference (or a range reference) in the name box, it selects all the specified cells.

For example, let’s say I want to select cell A1, K3, and M20

Since these are quite far off, if I try and select these using the mouse, I would have to scroll a little bit.

This may be justified if you only have to do it once in a while, but in case you have to say select the same cells often, you can use the name box instead.

Below are the steps to select multiple cells using the name box:

  1. Click on the name box
  2. Enter the cell references that you want to select (separated by comma)Enter cells you want to select in namebox
  3. Hit the enter key

The above steps would instantly select all the cells that you have entered in the name box.

Of these selected cells, one would be the active cell (and the cell reference of the active cell would now be visible in the name box).

Select a Named Range

If you have created a named range in Excel, you can also use the Name Box to refer to the entire named range (instead of using the cell references as shown in the method above)

If you don’t know what a Named Range is, it’s when you assign a name to a cell or a range of cells and then use the name instead of the cell reference in formulas.

Below are the steps to quickly create a Named Range in Excel:

  1. Select the cells that you want to be included in the Named Range
  2. Click on the Name box (which is the field adjacent to the formula bar)
  3. Enter the name that you want to assign to the selected range of cells (you can’t have spaces in the name)Creating a Named range thrpough Name Box
  4. Hit the Enter key

The above steps would create a Named Range for the cells that you selected.

Now, if you want to quickly select these same cells, instead of doing that manually you can simply go to the Name box and enter the name of the named range (or click on the dropdown icon and select the name from there)

Select the named range from the name box

This would instantly select all the cells that are part of that Named Range.

So, these are some of the methods that you can use to select multiple cells in Excel.

I hope you found this tutorial useful.

Other Excel tutorials you may like:

  • How to Select Non-adjacent cells in Excel?
  • How to Deselect Cells in Excel
  • 3 Quick Ways to Select Visible Cells in Excel
  • How to Select Every Third Row in Excel (or select every Nth Row)
  • How to Quickly Select Blank Cells in Excel
  • How to Select Entire Column (or Row) in Excel
  • How to Select Every Other Row in Excel

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