There are times when you have to work with data in a worksheet imported from another program into Excel. Normally, it is not a problem to import the worksheet. The problem is that during the process potentially hundreds of extra rows that have no data in them are imported as well. After the import you have to manually delete those extra rows so you can use the rest of the data. So is there is a way to easily get rid of these empty rows?
There are different ways you can look at this. The easiest way could be to simply sort your imported data by the column of your choice. All the rows that contain nothing in that column end up at either the end or beginning of the data (depending on if you sort in ascending or descending order) and you can easily delete those rows.
When you do a sort in this manner though, you could easily end up with your data out of the original, imported order. If you need the data to be in the original order—but with the blank rows removed— you can just insert a column to the left or right of your data, fill it with sequential numbers, do your sort by any column except that added column, and then delete the rows that are blank (with only something in the numbering column). You can then sort a second time based on the numbering column and your data will be back in its original order. Seems a tad tedious don’t you think?
Follow the steps below:
- Select your entire column.
- Click F5 to display the Go To dialog box.
- Click Special to displays the Go To Special dialog box.
- Select Blanks | OK. Excel selects only those cells in the column that are blank.
- Select Delete from the Edit menu to display the Delete dialog box.
- Select Entire Row and then click OK.