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Excel 2013
-
Shift+Spacebar to select the row.
-
Ctrl+-(minus sign) to delete the row.
Excel 2016
-
Shift+Spacebar to select the row.
-
Ctrl+-(minus sign) to delete the row.
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Bottom line: Learn some of my favorite keyboard shortcuts when working with rows and columns in Excel.
Skill level: Easy
Whether you are creating a simple list of names or building a complex financial model, you probably make a lot of changes to the rows and columns in the spreadsheet. Tasks like adding/deleting rows, adjusting column widths, and creating outline groups are very common when working with the grid.
This post contains some of my favorite shortcuts that will save you time every day.
I’ve also listed the equivalent shortcuts for the Mac version of Excel where available.
#1 – Select Entire Row or Column
Shift+Space is the keyboard shortcut to select an entire row.
Ctrl+Space is the keyboard shortcut to select an entire column.
Mac Shortcuts: Same as above
The keyboard shortcuts by themselves don’t do much. However, they are the starting point for performing a lot of other actions where you first need to select the entire row or column. This includes tasks like deleting rows, grouping columns, etc.
These shortcuts also work for selecting the entire row or column inside an Excel Table.
When you press the Shift+Space shortcut the first time it will select the entire row within the Table. Press Shift+Space a second time and it will select the entire row in the worksheet.
The same works for columns. Ctrl+Space will select the column of data in the Table. Pressing the keyboard shortcut a second time will include the column header of the Table in the selection. Pressing Ctrl+Space a third time will select the entire column in the worksheet.
You can select multiple rows or columns by holding Shift and pressing the Arrow Keys multiple times.
#2 – Insert or Delete Rows or Columns
There are a few ways to quickly delete rows and columns in Excel.
If you have the rows or columns selected, then the following keyboard shortcuts will quickly add or delete all selected rows or columns.
Ctrl++ (plus character) is the keyboard shortcut to insert rows or columns. If you are using a laptop keyboard you can press Ctrl+Shift+= (equal sign).
Mac Shortcut: Cmd++ or Cmd+Shift+
Ctrl+- (minus character) is the keyboard shortcut to delete rows or columns.
Mac Shortcut: Cmd+-
So for the above shortcuts to work you will first need to select the entire row or column, which can be done with the Shift+Space or Ctrl+Space shortcuts explained in #1.
If you do not have the entire row or column selected then you will be presented with the Insert or Delete Menus after pressing Ctrl++ or Ctrl+-.
You can then press the up or down arrow keys to make your selection from the menu and hit Enter. For me it is easier to first select the entire row or column, then press Ctrl++ or Ctrl+-.
So, the entire keyboard shortcut to delete a column would be Ctrl+Space, Ctrl+-. You could also use the keyboard shortcut Alt+H+D+C to delete columns and Alt+H+D+R to delete rows. There are lots of ways to do a simple task… 🙂
#3 – AutoFit Column Width
There are also a lot of different ways to AutoFit column widths. AutoFit means that the width of the column will be adjusted to fit the contents of the cell.
You can use the mouse and double-click when you hover the cursor between columns when you see the resize column cursor.
The problem with this is that you might just want to resize the column for the date in cell A4, instead of the big long title in cell A1. To accomplish this you can use the AutoFit Column Width button. It is located on the Home tab of the Ribbon in the Format menu.
The AutoFit Column Width button bases the width of the column on the cells you have selected. In the image above I have cell A4 selected. So the column width will be adjusted to fit the contents of A4, as shown in the results below.
Alt,H,O,I is the keyboard shortcut for the AutoFit Column Width button. This is one I use a lot to get my reports looking shiny. 🙂
Alt,H,O,A is the keyboard shortcut to AutoFit Row Height. It doesn’t work exactly the same as column width, and will only adjust the row height to the tallest cell in the entire row.
Mac Shortcuts: None that I know of. The Mac version does not use the Alt key sequence which I believe is a limitation of the Mac OS.
#3.5 – Manually Adjust Row or Column Width
The column width or row height windows can be opened with keyboard shortcuts as well.
Alt,O,R,E is the keyboard shortcut to open the Row Height window.
Alt,O,C,W is the keyboard shortcut to open the Column Width window.
The row height or column width will be applied to the rows or columns of all the cells that are currently selected.
These are old shortcuts from Excel 2003, but they still work in the modern versions of Excel.
Mac Shortcuts: None that I know of. The Mac version does not use the Alt key sequence which I believe is a limitation of the Mac OS.
#4 – Hide or Unhide Rows or Columns
There are several dedicated keyboard shortcuts to hide and unhide rows and columns.
- Ctrl+9 to Hide Rows
- Ctrl+0 (zero) to Hide Columns
- Ctrl+Shift+( to Unhide Rows
- Ctrl+Shift+) to Unhide Columns – If this doesn’t work for you try Alt,O,C,U (old Excel 2003 shortcut that still works). You can also modify a Windows setting to prevent the conflict with this shortcut. See the comment from Pablo Baez on Oct 5, 2015 below for further instructions. Thanks Pablo! 🙂
Mac Shortcuts: Same as above
The buttons are also located on the Format menu on the Home tab of the Ribbon. You can hover over any of the items in the menu and the keyboard shortcut will display in the screentip (see screenshot below).
The trick with getting these shortcuts to work is to have the proper cells selected first.
To hide rows or columns you just need to select cells in the rows or columns you want to hide, then press the Ctrl+9 or Ctrl+Shift+( shortcut.
To unhide rows or columns you first need to select the cells that surround the rows or columns you want to unhide. In the screenshot below I want to unhide rows 3 & 4. I first select cell B2:B5, cells that surround or cover the hidden rows, then press Ctrl+Shift+( to unhide the rows.
The same technique works to unhide columns.
#5 – Group or Ungroup Rows or Columns
Row and Column groupings are a great way to quickly hide and unhide columns and rows.
Shift+Alt+Right Arrow is the shortcut to group rows or columns.
Mac Shortcut: Cmd+Shift+K
Shift+Alt+Left Arrow is the shortcut to ungroup.
Mac Shortcut: Cmd+Shift+J
Again, the trick here is to select the entire rows or columns you want to group/ungroup first. Otherwise you will be presented with the Group or Ungroup menu.
Alt,A,U,C is the keyboard shortcut to remove all the row and columns groups on the sheet. This is the same as pressing the Clear Outline button on the Ungroup menu of the Data tab on the Ribbon.
*Bonus funny: At some point when using the group/ungroup shortcuts, you will accidentally press Ctrl+Alt+Right Arrow. This is a Windows shortcut that orientates the entire screen to the right. I call it “neck ache view”. To get it back to normal press Ctrl+Alt+Up Arrow.
If your co-worker or boss accidentally leaves their computer unlocked and you want to play a joke on them, press Ctrl+Alt+Down Arrow. This will turn their screen upside down. Don’t forget to record a video of their WTF reaction… 🙂
What Are Your Favorites?
There are a ton of keyboard shortcuts for working with rows and columns. The above are some of my favorites that I use everyday. What are some of your favorites? Please leave a comment below. Thanks! 🙂
As you know, Excel is a very user-friendly software for daily business purpose data manipulation. In day-to-day data management, we maintain the data in Excel sheets. However, sometimes we need to delete the row and number of rows from the data. We can delete the selected row in Excel just by CTRL –(minus sign).
To delete multiple rows quickly, we can use the same shortcut.
Also, have a look at this list of Excel ShortcutsAn Excel shortcut is a technique of performing a manual task in a quicker way.read more.
Table of contents
- Shortcut to Delete Row in Excel
- How to Delete Row In Excel Shortcut?
- Deleting a Row Using Excel (ctrl -) Shortcut – Example #1
- Deleting a Row Using Right Click – Example #2
- Deleting the Multiple Rows – Example #3
- Things to Remember
- Recommended Articles
- How to Delete Row In Excel Shortcut?
How to Delete Row In Excel Shortcut?
Let us understand the Excel shortcut keys working with simple examples below.
You can download this Delete Row Excel Shortcut Template here – Delete Row Excel Shortcut Template
Deleting a Row Using Excel (ctrl -) Shortcut – Example #1
The table below shows a sales data set to apply the delete row in the Excel shortcut operation.
Below are the steps for deleting a row in Excel (CTRL -) shortcut:
- We must first select the row we want to delete from the sales data table. Here, we pick row no.3.
- Then, press the CTRL – (minus sign) keys.
- We may get the below four options to decide the place for the remaining data:
That are shift cells left
Shift cells up (by default)
Entire Row
Entire Column - We may select the whole row from the available option by pressing the “R” button, then the “OK” key.
- As a result, row no.3 will be deleted from the given data set.
Deleting a Row Using Right Click – Example #2
Let us consider the below country-wise sales data, and we want to delete row 2 from it.
Now, we must select row no. 2 and right-click and choose the “Delete” option, as shown below.
As a result, it will enable the below four options to decide the place for the remaining data:
- Shift cells left.
- Shift cells up (by default)
- Entire Row
- Entire Column
Select the “Entire Row” from the available option and press the “OK” key.
The output will be:
Deleting the Multiple Rows – Example #3
This example will apply the shortcut key on multiple rows at once.
Let us consider the table below and select the multiple rows from the table we want to delete from this table. For example, suppose we want to delete the 3rd,4th, and 5th rows from the below table.
Then, select the 3rd,4th, and 5th rows and press the CTRL-
Now, we must choose the “Entire Row” and click “OK.”
And we will get the below table after deletion.
Things to Remember
- We must always select the “Entire Row” option while deleting the row. Otherwise, we may face the wrong data moving problem in your table.
- Suppose we select the “Shift cell up” option from the table, then only the cell from the table gets deleted, not the whole row, and our data from the cell below gets shifted upwards.
- Suppose we select the “Shift cell left” option from the table, then only the cell from the table gets deleted, not the whole row, and the entire row data gets shifted to the left.
- If we select the “Entire Column” option, the selected column will get deleted.
Recommended Articles
This article is a guide to keyboard Shortcut to Delete Row in Excel. Here, we discuss how to delete a row in Excel using shortcuts – 1) Using CTRL (-) 2) Using right-click, 3) Deleting the multiple rows along with practical examples. You may learn more about Excel from the following articles: –
- Insert Row in VBA
- Insert Row Shortcut in Excel
- Excel Delete Blank Rows
- Excel Create List
Delete Row | Delete Rows | Delete Cells
To quickly delete a row in Excel, select a row and use the shortcut CTRL — (minus sign). To quickly delete multiple rows, select multiple rows and use the same shortcut.
Delete Row
To delete a row in Excel, execute the following steps.
1. Select a row.
2. Right click, and then click Delete.
Result:
Note: instead of executing step 2, use the shortcut CTRL — (minus sign).
Delete Rows
To quickly delete multiple rows in Excel, execute the following steps.
1. Select multiple rows by clicking and dragging over the row headers.
2. Press CTRL — (minus sign).
Result:
Delete Cells
Excel displays the Delete Cells dialog box if you don’t select a row or multiple rows before using the shortcut CTRL — (minus sign).
1. Select cell A3.
2. Press CTRL — (minus sign).
3a. Excel automatically selects «Shift cells up». Click OK.
Result:
3b. To delete a row, select «Entire row» and click OK.
Result:
Excel Delete Row Shortcut (Table of Contents)
- Shortcut to Delete Row in Excel
- How to delete a row in excel using right-click menu without Shortcut
- How to delete the excel row using the ribbon menu
Shortcut to Delete Row in Excel
To delete a row in excel, we need to select the Rows which we want to delete and press Ctrl + Minus (“-“) sign together. This will eliminate the rows which we do not want. This can also be done by selecting the row in excel, choosing the Delete Row option available in the right-click menu list. We can even Delete a cell from any row by selecting Shift Cell Up from Right-click menu’s Delete option. This will move the data up by cells position, which we remove.
How to delete a row in excel using right-click menu without Shortcut
- First, select the row that you want to delete.
- Right-click on the row cell.
- We will get the dialog box.
- Click on delete so that the selected row will be deleted.
How to delete the excel row using the ribbon menu
In Microsoft Excel, we can find the delete cells on the home menu, which is shown in the below screenshot.
Once you click on the delete cells, we will get the following options:
- Delete cells: Which are used to delete the selected cells.
- Delete Sheet Rows: Which is used to delete the selected rows.
- Delete Sheet Column: Which is used to delete the selected column.
- Delete Sheet: Which is used to delete the entire sheet.
We will see all these options one by one.
Example #1 – Delete Cells
Consider the below example, which has sales data. Sometimes it is required to delete unwanted rows and columns in the data. So in this, we need to delete the cells which are shown in the below steps.
Assume that we need to delete the row that has been highlighted in green color.
- First, select the row you exactly need to delete, as shown in the below figure.
- Go to the delete cells. Click on the delete cells so that we will get the below delete option as shown in the below screenshot. Click on the second delete option called “delete sheet rows.”
- So that the selected row will be deleted, as shown in the below screenshot
We can see the difference that the first column named SKU 69001 row has been deleted, and the count of a row highlighted in green color has been reduced to two rows before the highlighted green color row count was three.
Example #2 – How to delete entire selected rows
In this example, we are going to see how to delete the entire row by following the below steps.
Here we need to delete the highlighted rows.
- First, select the highlighted row that we need to delete, as shown in the below screenshot.
- Now click on the delete cells. Click on the second delete options, “ delete sheet rows.”
- So that the selected entire row sheets will be deleted, which is shown in the below output.
In the above screenshot, we can see that selected rows have been deleted to see the difference that highlighted rows had been deleted.
Example #3
(a) Use Keyboard shortcut to delete the row in excel
In Microsoft Excel, we have several shortcut keys for all functions where we have a shortcut key for deleting the excel row and column also. The shortcut key for deleting the row in excel is CTRL +” -”( minus sign), and the shortcut key for inserting the row is CTRL +SHIFT+ ” +” (plus sign), and the same shortcuts can be used for inserting and deleting for the same. Mostly we will be using the number pad for inserting numbers. We can also use the number pad shortcut key to delete the row. The shortcut key to be applied is CTRL+”+”(Plus Sign).
Steps to use shortcut keys to delete the row in excel
The keyboard shortcut key to delete the row in excel is CTRL+ “-“i.e. Minus sign which we need to use.
- First, select the cell where you exactly need to delete the row, which is shown below.
- Use the keyboard shortcut key. Hold CTRL Key and Press “-“ minus sign on the keyboard.
- So that the entire row will be deleted, which is shown below.
Here we can see the difference that the Product title name “Braun ES2 Hair Straightener “ row has been deleted, as we notice that in the above screenshot.
(b) How to Delete Entire Rows in Excel Using the Keyboard Shortcut key
Consider the below example where we need to delete rows of the brand name “ BRAUN”, which is highlighted for reference.
In order to delete the excel rows using a keyboard shortcut, follow the below steps.
- First, select the row cells which has been highlighted in pink color.
- Press the CTRL key and hold it. By holding the CTRL key, press the “-“ minus sign.
- Once you press the CTRL key and – key at a time, the selected row will be deleted. We will get the below result which is shown in the below screenshot.
We can see that the BRAND name called “BRAUN” rows has been completely deleted in the above screenshot.
Example #4 – Deleting Selected and Multiple Rows in Excel
Consider the below example where we can see unwanted blank rows in the sheet that makes the data inappropriate. In this scenario, we can delete the blank rows at a time using the keyboard shortcut or using the delete cells menu.
Now we need to delete the blank rows in the above sales data and make the sheet with clear input.
In order to delete the multiple rows at a time, follow the below simple steps.
- First, hold the CTRL Key.
- Select the entire blank rows by holding the CTRL-key.
- We can see that selected rows have been marked in blue color.
- Now go to delete cells. Click on delete sheet rows.
- Once you click on the delete sheet rows, all the selected rows will be deleted within a fraction of a second.
- We will get the result as follows, which is given below.
In the above screenshot, we can notice that all blank rows are now deleted, and the data looks better when compared to previous data.
Things to Remember About Delete Row Excel Shortcut
While deleting the data in excel, make sure that the data is not required. However, we can retrieve the deleted rows by doing undo in excel.
You can download this Delete Row Shortcut Excel Template here – Delete Row Shortcut Excel Template.
Recommended Articles
This has been a guide to shortcut to delete a row in excel. Here we discuss how to delete a row in excel using a shortcut – 1) keyboard shortcut 2) Using Right Click 3) Using Delete Sheet Row option along with practical examples and downloadable excel template. You can also go through our other suggested articles –
- ROWS Function in Excel
- VBA Delete Row
- Remove (Delete) Blank Rows in Excel
- Excel Rows and Columns