ASM Arman
While working with a list of any kind i.e, a list of products or a list of employees you might come across a lot of blank cells in it. While such blank cells might be useful at times, mostly these blank cells could create a lot of problems for you making the list unnecessarily long and difficult to read. In this tutorial, I will show you how to remove blanks from the list formula in Excel.
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4 Easy Ways to Remove Blanks from List Using Formula in Excel
Let’s assume a scenario where we have an Excel worksheet that has a list of various computer hardwares and accessories. Problem is that the list has a lot of blank spaces in it. We will use this list to show you how to remove blanks from the list using formulas in Excel. The image below shows the original list and the list after all the blanks are removed from it.
Method 1: Remove Blanks From Vertical List Using an Array Formula
We can use an array formula to remove the blanks from a vertical list very easily. Let’s see how we can do that.
Step 1:
- First, we will write down the below formula in cell D5.
Formula Breakdown:
- INDEX function will return the value of an element in a table or an array.
- SMALL function will return the k-th smallest value in a dataset.
- ISBLANK function returns TRUE if the cell reference used as the argument is blank, otherwise returns FALSE.
- ROW function returns the row number of references used as the argument.
- MIN function extracts the lowest or smallest value from a range of cells or cell references.
- Then, upon pressing ENTER, the formula will return the first item of the list.
Step 2:
- Now, we will drag the fill handle of cell D5 to apply the formula to the rest of the cells.
- Finally, we will get the list of all the products without any blank cells.
Read More: How to Set Cell to Blank in Formula in Excel (6 Ways)
Method 2: Perform an Array Formula to Remove Blanks From Horizontal List
Alternatively, we can also another array formula to remove blank cells from a horizontal list. We have to follow the below steps.
Step 1:
- First, we will write down the below formula in cell B8.
=IF(COLUMN(B:B)<=SUM(–($B$6:$L$6<>””))+1,INDEX($B$6:$L$6,0,SMALL(IF($B$6:$L$6<>””,
COLUMN($B$6:$L$6)-1,””),COLUMN(B:B)-1)),””)
Formula Breakdown:
- IF function allows us to make logical comparisons between a value and what you expect.
- SUM function adds all the numbers in a range of cells.
- INDEX function will return the value of an element in a table or an array.
- SMALL function will return the k-th smallest value in a dataset.
- COLUMN function returns the column number of references used as the argument.
- MIN function extracts the lowest or smallest value from a range of cells or cell references.
- Then, upon pressing ENTER, the formula will return the first item of the list.
Step 2:
- Now, we will drag the fill handle of cell D5 horizontally to apply the formula to the rest of the cells.
- Finally, we will get the list of all the products without any blank cells.
Read More: Find, Count and Apply Formula If a Cell is Not Blank (With Examples)
Similar Readings:
- How to Delete Blank Cells in Excel and Shift Data Up
- Apply Conditional Formatting in Excel If Another Cell Is Blank
- How to Ignore Blank Cells in Range in Excel (8 Ways)
- If Cell is Blank Then Show 0 in Excel (4 Ways)
- How to Calculate in Excel If Cells are Not Blank: 7 Exemplary Formulas
Method 3: Use the Go To Special Option to Remove Blanks From List
The easiest and most efficient way to remove blanks from a list is to use Go To Special menu. To do that, we have to follow the below steps.
Step 1:
- First, go to Home > Editing > Find & Select and click on Go to Special. With the Go to Special feature, we can find and select cells based on what they are containing.
- Alternatively, you can also press the F5 key to open the Go To menu. Then, click on the Special button on the down-left corner of that menu.
Step 2:
- Next, we will select Blanks from the Go To Special.
- Then, we will click OK.
Step 3:
- Now, we will click on the Delete drop-down under the Home Then, we will select Delete Cells from the drop-down menu.
- Then, a window titled Delete will appear. Next, we will select Shift cells up from that window.
- Next, we will click on OK.
- Finally, we will get the list of all the products without any blank cells.
Read More: Fill Blank Cells with Value Above in Excel (4 Methods)
Method 4: Remove Blanks from List Using the COUNTBLANK Function
Another way to remove blanks from the list is to use the COUNTBLANK function and the table filter together. Let’s see how we can do that.
Step 1:
- First, we will write down the below formula in cell D5.
=COUNTBLANK(B5)
Formula Breakdown:
The COUNTBLANK formula will count the blank cells within that range.
- Upon pressing ENTER, we will see that the formula returns zero (0) as cell B5 is not empty rather contains the text Keyboard.
Step 2:
- Then, we will drag the fill handle of cell C5 downward to apply the formula to the rest of the cells.
- Finally, we will see that the formula returns zero (0) for the cells containing text, and one (1) for those that are empty in the Product column.
Step 3:
- Now, we will select all the cells in the data range including the column header.
- Then, we will select Table under the Insert ribbon.
- Now, a window titled Create Table will appear. We will select the My Table has headers option.
- Then, we will click on OK.
- Now, we will see that our data range has been formatted as a table. Notice, there is a Filter icon shown on each of the columns.
- Then, we will select the Filter icon of the Blanks column.
- After that, select only 1.
- Finally, press OK.
Step 4:
- Finally, we will only see the empty cells.
- Now, select the entire data range.
- Then, right-click on any cell in the Blanks column to bring up the Context Menu.
- After that, go to Delete >>> Entire Sheet Row.
- Now, we will see that all the blanks have been removed.
- Next, we will bring back the table by clearing the filter.
- First, select the filter icon.
- Then, select Clear Filter From “Blanks”.
- Finally, we will now only see the rows that contain text in the Product column.
- Further, we can remove the blank column to make our dataset smaller. First, we will right-click on any cell in the Blanks column to bring up the Context Menu.
- Then, we will click on Delete>Table Columns.
- Finally, we will see that we have removed all the blanks from the list.
Read More: How to Delete Empty Cells in Excel (6 Methods)
Quick Notes
🎯 The two formulas we have used are array formulas. So, you must press CTRL+SHIFT+ENTER together to insert any of these formulas in a cell. And it will put two curly braces around the whole formula.
🎯 Also, if you are looking for how to remove blank spaces in Excel, you can read this article. And also read this one to learn how to add blank spaces in Excel.
Conclusion
In this article, we have learned how to remove blanks from the list formula in Excel. I hope from now on you can remove blanks from the list very easily. However, if you have any queries or recommendations about this article, please do leave a comment below. Have a great day!!!
Hi – I tried this and at first all I got in the cell with the formula was the #NAME error. I double-clicked the cell to mess around with the formula, changed nothing, hit enter, and then it worked for the first item. When I propagated the formula, though, every other cell returned an error: #NAME? or #NUM!. It would be AMAZINGLY AWESOME to get this formula to work because there are many situations where I would love to have a formula that automatically updates and removes blank lines from a series of cells but I have no idea how to fix it. Here is the formula I put into my worksheet:
=INDEX($C$8:$C$55, SMALL(IF(ISBLANK($C$8:$C$55), “”, ROW($C$8:$C$55)-MIN(ROW($C$8:$C$55))+1), ROW(A1)))
My data are in column C from C8 to C55. They are:
C8 = Housing
C9-C11 = blank
C12 = Vehicles
C13-15 = blank
C16 = Gas
C17 = blank
C18 = Utilities
C19-23 = blank
C24 = Food
C25-27 = blank
C28 = Party
C29 = blank
C30 = Saving
C31-33 = blank
C35 = Carl
C35-38 = blank
and so on. I can add more if you need it.
To be fair, although I have minor experience with coding (C++ and Python), INDEX functions in Excel are like hieroglyphics to me; I just don’t get it. What am I doing wrong? Why will it work for the first cell but when I propagate (drag the fill button as it says above) does it stop working?
Hello, TRYSTAN! Can you please email us your Excel file containing the dataset with the problem? Thanks.
Why not use the FILTER function? Perhaps combined with the UNIQUE function?
=UNIQUE(FILTER(B5:B14,B5:B14″”))
Hello NK,
It’s awesome that you have found another solution which is applicable by adding a simple symbol in the formula you have mentioned. Yes obviously it is possible to remove blank from lists using the combination of UNIQUE and FILTER functions. The formula should be for the dataset of this article.
=UNIQUE(FILTER(B5:B14,B5:B14<>“”))
You need to add the symbol <> extra.
Here, the FILTER function is used to remove any blank values from the data.
The <> symbol is a logical operator that means does not equal.
The filtered data is returned directly to the UNIQUE function as the array argument. The UNIQUE function then removes duplicates and return the final array.
Thanks with Regards,
Towhid
Excel & VBA Content Developer