Delete Blank Rows in Excel

Deleting blank rows in Excel is a quick and easy way to tidy up worksheets. It only takes a few seconds. Let’s learn how to delete blank rows in Microsoft Excel.

How to Delete Adjacent Blank Rows in Excel

When you work on your spreadsheets, you may find yourself with blank rows. These can be distracting, and make your data appear somewhat cluttered.

There are two different ways to delete blank rows in Excel. The first instance happens if you have several blank rows grouped together. Consider an example like this: rows 2, 3, and 4 are blank, and need to be deleted.

To get started, click on the row number of the topmost row. In this case, that’s 2. Next, hold down Shift on your keyboard. Click on the lowermost row number, which is 4 in this example.

Excel will instantly select all three rows: the two you clicked on, and any rows in between. This works no matter whether you have 2 or 2,000 blank rows. The process is identical.

Now, to delete the rows, be sure you’re working on Excel’s Home tab on the ribbon. Then, click Delete.

The blank rows will delete, and your other data will shift to fill the gaps.

How to Delete Non-Adjacent Blank Rows in Excel

Imagine you have blank rows that you want to delete, but they aren’t grouped together. For example, rows 1 and 3 are blank, while row 2 has data in it. Holding Shift and deleting will result in deleting the data from row 2.

To delete non-adjacent blank rows, begin by clicking on the uppermost row number to select it. Here, that’s row 1. Now, instead of holding Shift, hold Control (or Command on Mac) and click on the other blank row(s), in this case, 3.

As you can see, Excel will select only the rows you’ve clicked on. Anything in between is left untouched. From here, the process is identical to before. Simply click Delete on the Home tab. The blanks will be deleted, and data will move to fill the gaps. If you would like to Insert Multiple Rows in Excel we have a quick tutorial to help out.

This is a great example of a quick cleanup task you can perform to make your spreadsheets look neater.