How to Remove Extra Spaces in Your Google Sheets Data – Guide
Google Sheets is a powerful and free spreadsheet tool. Many individuals, organizations, and businesses find Google Sheets an invaluable addition to their productivity toolset. While not as powerful as paid programs like Excel, Sheets does offer a wide variety of features with a smooth learning curve. You can remove extra, double or extra spaces in Google Sheets with a function or menu commands. The function we can use to remove extra spaces in Google Sheets data is called TRIM. On a computer, a space between words is not an empty space but a character and these extra characters can affect how data is used in a worksheet, for example in the CONCATENATE function which combines multiple data cells into one. Function: Combination formulas can sometimes return extra spaces if one of the functions used in the combination returns a space. In such cases, removing extra spaces from formula outputs in Google Sheets is mandatory. The TRIM function can be used with other formulas to remove these extra spaces. There are several ways to remove spaces from a Google Sheets spreadsheet, including built-in functions and a useful add-on. Each of these methods is effective, but some are better suited for certain situations. Check out the options below and choose the one that best suits your needs.
Google Spreadsheets TRIM Function
The syntax of a function refers to the layout of the function and includes the function name, square brackets, and arguments. The syntax for the TRIM function is:
TRIM(text)
The argument to the TRIM function is: Text (Required) This is the data you want to remove spaces from. This can be:
Removing the original data with special paste
If the cell reference to the location of the data to be trimmed is used as a text argument, the function cannot reside in the same cell as the original data. As a result, the affected text must remain in its original location on the worksheet. This can present problems if there is a large amount of trimmed data or if the original data is located in an important work area. One way to work around this problem is to use Paste Special to paste values only after the data has been copied. This means that the results of the TRIM function can be pasted back over the original data and then the TRIM function removed.
How to Remove original data with special paste
The original data in cells A1 to A3 can be removed without affecting the trimmed data using the Paste Special Paste Values option to paste the original data into cells A1 to A3. Then the TRIM functions in cells A6 to A8 will also be removed because they are no longer needed. #REF! errors: If you use a regular copy and paste operation instead of pasting values, TRIM functions will be pasted into cells A1 to A3, which will result in multiple #REF! errors displayed on the worksheet.
Final note
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