Questions tagged [microsoft-excel]

A spreadsheet application by Microsoft. Use this tag along with [vba] if your question involves programming Excel in VBA, and with [worksheet-function] if it involves an Excel formula or worksheet function. Also add the the specific version tag (e.g. [microsoft-excel-2019] or [microsoft-excel-365]) as features and functions may vary between them.

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345 votes
7 answers
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How do I get the distinct/unique values in a column in Excel?

If I have a column with values, and I want to find out what distinct values are in there (not how many - but the actual distinct values), how can I do that? In SQL Server I would do something like ...
Kjensen's user avatar
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243 votes
13 answers
674k views

Easiest way to open CSV with commas in Excel

CSV files are automatically associated with Excel but when I open them, all the rows are basically in the first column, like this: It's probably because when Excel thinks "comma-separated values", it ...
Borek Bernard's user avatar
220 votes
10 answers
1.1m views

How can I "group by" and sum a column in excel?

I'm trying to figure out how to "group by" values in an Excel spreadsheet. Given the following example (this is an inventory sheet I use at my restaurant:) At the far right of the spreadsheet there ...
Ian P's user avatar
  • 2,303
175 votes
10 answers
386k views

How to easily reorder rows in excel with drag and drop or move-up or move-down?

I have to do some manual reordering or rows in Excel and cut/paste is too hard to use. I'm looking for something that would enable me to use drag'n'drop or to add some buttons to move-up/down move-top/...
sorin's user avatar
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173 votes
14 answers
1.2m views

Convert a column into a comma separated list

I have the task of creating a simple Excel sheet that takes an unspecified number of rows in Column A like this: 1234 123461 123151 11321 And make them into a comma-separated list in another cell ...
muncherelli's user avatar
  • 2,485
168 votes
14 answers
495k views

Why does Excel treat long numeric strings as scientific notation even after changing cell format to text

I'm trying to process some data in Excel. The data includes numeric account numbers and other long numeric strings (like cell phone MEIDs). I am not doing math operations on these strings, so I want ...
Michael Levy's user avatar
  • 1,990
158 votes
5 answers
114k views

Is it possible to paste CSV formatted data into Excel 2007?

I want to copy and paste CSV formatted text into Excel 2007. Is there a way of doing this without saving it to a temporary file first? I'm sure in previous versions of Excel there was a way to ...
therefromhere's user avatar
152 votes
5 answers
78k views

Excel: how to undo in current file only?

Microsoft Excel's undo / redo feature behaves unlike any other program I know. The undo stack seems to be global across all open files, so that undoing sometimes switches to another file and undoes ...
Hugh Allen's user avatar
  • 9,880
146 votes
8 answers
687k views

Find Items in one column that are not in another column

I have two columns in Excel, and I want to find (preferably highlight) the items that are in column B but not in column A. What's the quickest way to do this?
C. Ross's user avatar
  • 6,314
143 votes
10 answers
376k views

How do I join two worksheets in Excel as I would in SQL?

I have two worksheets in two different Excel files. They both contain a list of names, id numbers, and associated data. One is a master list that includes general demographic fields, and the other is ...
Joel Coehoorn's user avatar
139 votes
8 answers
705k views

Turn off scientific notation in Excel

I would like to prevent Excel behavior that any large number I enter is stored as a number, then abbreviated to scientific notation. Is it possible to tell Excel 2007 to stop doing this?
Pierre Gardin's user avatar
137 votes
6 answers
375k views

How do I expand all columns in Excel spreadsheet?

I have a spreadsheet with many columns. The columns are all a small standard width. Double-clicking the partition line between columns will expand the column width to encompass the longest string in ...
MattUebel's user avatar
  • 1,753
135 votes
7 answers
119k views

How can I stop Excel from eating my delicious CSV files and excreting useless data?

I have a database which tracks sales of widgets by serial number. Users enter purchaser data and quantity, and scan each widget into a custom client program. They then finalize the order. This all ...
atroon's user avatar
  • 2,616
132 votes
6 answers
317k views

Formatting a comma-delimited CSV to force Excel to interpret value as a string

I've been searching around for a while trying to figure out how to output a CSV file in such a way to force Excel to interpret the values as a string and not try to convert them to numbers or dates. ...
Simon E.'s user avatar
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132 votes
9 answers
502k views

Excel - Prevent cell text from overflowing into next (empty) cell

When you have text in an Excel cell that is too long to be shown in the visible area of that cell, and the next cell on the right is empty, Excel lets the text be displayed in that next cell (and the ...
e-mre's user avatar
  • 1,755
131 votes
9 answers
485k views

How to get Excel to interpret the comma as a default delimiter in CSV files?

I have a number of .csv files. Some of them are comma delimited, some are tab delimited (maybe they should be called .tsv ...) The csv extension gets associated with Excel when Excel is installed. ...
Szabolcs's user avatar
  • 2,907
124 votes
20 answers
545k views

How do you force excel to quote all columns of a CSV file?

Excel only places quotes around certain fields, how do I force excel to save a CSV file with quotes around every column?
Michael Shnitzer's user avatar
124 votes
5 answers
553k views

How to set character encoding when opening a CSV file in Excel?

Is it possible to set the default encoding for Excel (any version, e.g. 2010) when opening files like csv files (like you can in Open Office Calc)? I When I try to open a csv file encoded in Japanese ...
LozzerJP's user avatar
  • 1,373
122 votes
14 answers
288k views

Format a number with optional decimal places in Excel

I have numbers in cells in Excel. I want the numbers formatted so that if they have decimal places they show to a maximum of two, and if they have no decimal places it doesn't show any. For example. ...
Ray's user avatar
  • 1,813
120 votes
7 answers
213k views

How to open semicolon delimited CSV-files in US-version of Excel

When I double-click on a .csv file, it is opened in Excel. The csv-files have columns delimited with semicolons (not commas, but also a valid format). Using a German Windows/Excel setup, the opened ...
Holgerwa's user avatar
  • 1,494
119 votes
5 answers
933k views

How to write multi lines in one Excel cell?

I want to write multi-lines in one MS Excel cell. But whenever I press the Enter key, the cell editing ends and the cursor moves to next cell. How can I avoid this?
Wahid Bitar's user avatar
  • 1,905
118 votes
2 answers
193k views

How to search for ? (question mark) in Excel

When I try to find the question mark character (?) in an Excel sheet, Excel cannot locate the cells containing them. How can I search for ? in Excel?
Mehper C. Palavuzlar's user avatar
110 votes
15 answers
222k views

Open Excel files in new window

When I have Excel running and I double click an Excel file in Windows explorer, I'd like it to launch in a new window by default so that I can move documents to separate monitors. Is there any way to ...
JC.'s user avatar
  • 1,261
105 votes
16 answers
792k views

How to make Excel's "Auto Fit Row Height" feature actually auto fit the row height?

For every generation of Excel I can remember (including 2010, which I'm using now), Excel's "Auto Size Row" features sometimes fails to actually auto size a row when the cell contains wrapped text. ...
devuxer's user avatar
  • 4,021
103 votes
22 answers
242k views

How to copy multi-line text from Excel without quotes?

When you create a multi-line string in an excel cell (by using Alt-Enter), if you copy that cell to a text editor, excel will automatically add double quotes (") around the full string, ie: Cell1 | ...
Andrew Bickerton's user avatar
102 votes
8 answers
755k views

Cells not updating automatically

I have a formula in a cell which counts the values in 2 other cells. Normally, after entering in the values in these 2 other cells, the formula cell updates automatically when Enter is pressed or when ...
oshirowanen's user avatar
  • 1,720
101 votes
9 answers
838k views

In Excel, how do I check if a cell is in a list of values (a range of cells)

I've got a range (A3:A10) that contains names, and I'd like to check if the contents of another cell (D1) matches one of the names in my list. I've named the range A3:A10 'some_names', and I'd like ...
joseph.hainline's user avatar
96 votes
13 answers
20k views

For x=3 in Excel, why does = - x^2 + x result in 12 instead of -6?

Suppose my cell A1 in an Excel spreadsheet holds the number 3. If I enter the formula = - A1^2 + A1 in A2, then A2 shows the number 12, when it should show -6 (or -9+3) Why is that? How can I ...
Rodolfo Oviedo's user avatar
95 votes
3 answers
363k views

Go to specific row number in excel

Is there a way in Excel to go to a specific row number? For example I need to find an alternate way to not have to scroll but rather can immediately go to row # 3000
Shades's user avatar
  • 1,195
87 votes
5 answers
313k views

Can I use an excel formula to extract the link location of a hyperlink in a cell?

I have a spreadsheet with a large number of cells containing hyperlinks with display text different than the hyperlink location ie: cell location: A1 display text = "Site Info" hyperlink location =...
Gigamosh57's user avatar
  • 1,005
86 votes
8 answers
110k views

How do you view the bottom of really tall cells in Excel?

When there are very tall cells in Microsoft Excel, trying to scroll via mouse or even via scrollbar (clicking on "<-" "->" pointers) just jumps below to the next cell, hiding the bottom content of ...
zmische's user avatar
  • 963
84 votes
3 answers
30k views

Excel Conditional Formatting Escaping a Question Mark

I would like to use a conditional formatting rule in an excel file that would color any box with a question mark in it red. It seems that Excel is using a question mark as a wild card and will turn ...
kzh's user avatar
  • 4,323
81 votes
7 answers
482k views

How do you auto resize cells in Excel? [duplicate]

I have copied some data into Excel 2010. I have found that some of the cells need to be widened to allow the data to fit. How do I automatically adjust the height of the cells to fit the content?
Dunc's user avatar
  • 2,370
81 votes
10 answers
207k views

How can I set Excel to always import all columns of CSV files as Text?

Though I try to avoid it, I occasionally have to open a CSV file in Excel. When I do, it formats columns containing numbers, which makes them useless for my purposes. As far as I can tell, the only ...
William Gunn's user avatar
80 votes
8 answers
380k views

How to remove the print preview lines in Excel 2010?

Somehow or other I have managed to switch on the print margin lines in Excel 2010. I cannot seem to turn them off. I went to Page Layout->Page Setup->Print Area->Clear Print Area but the lines remain ...
Mark Allison's user avatar
  • 1,285
79 votes
24 answers
586k views

How to make cells perfect squares in Excel?

In Microsoft Excel, I want to make the height of first three rows and first four columns (12 cells in the top left corner) such that these cells are squares. How can this be done? Surprisingly, ...
Lazer's user avatar
  • 17.7k
78 votes
21 answers
611k views

Excel Auto-Fill a Series Without Mouse (Keyboard Only)

When I want to extend a series or something along those lines, I can highlight a group of cells, then click on the bottom right corner of the highlighting box and drag down. Excel will then attempt ...
jtpereyda's user avatar
  • 2,467
76 votes
7 answers
249k views

How to delete rows not in filter

I have a very large table in Excel (1000's of rows) and I filter it to only show 10 rows. I wonder if there is a way to delete the rows not shown (i.e. don't meet filter conditions)? This would ...
GreyCloud's user avatar
  • 1,306
74 votes
3 answers
309k views

What is the maximum allowed rows in a Microsoft Excel .xls or .xlsx

Is there a limit? I couldn't find one posted.
Andy's user avatar
  • 882
73 votes
12 answers
136k views

How to "unpivot" or "reverse pivot" in Excel?

I have data that looks like this: Id | Loc1 | Loc2 | Loc3 | Loc4 ---+------+------+------+----- 1 | NY | CA | TX | IL 2 | WA | OR | NH | RI And I want to convert it to this: Id | ...
devuxer's user avatar
  • 4,021
71 votes
4 answers
161k views

Is it possible to sum an entire column without setting explicit cell boundaries in Excel?

I'd like to sum all the values in a column starting from a certain minimum value, but I don't want to give an upper bound because any value in the table will be appropriate for summing (minus the ...
bwerks's user avatar
  • 1,493
69 votes
2 answers
463k views

What is the Excel hotkey to re-calculate all formula in sheet?

I have a sheet that contains many formulas. But they do not recalculate automatically when I change input. I'm looking for a hotkey, that can re-calculate the sheet. According to this page, F9 ...
Davuz's user avatar
  • 817
66 votes
11 answers
256k views

Excel copy-paste: always match destination formatting

I use Excel to crunch numbers, so I usually don't want to copy the formatting along with the text. But this is the default. Is there a way to default to always match destination formatting when ...
Leftium's user avatar
  • 9,237
65 votes
9 answers
380k views

How to force Excel to open CSV files with data arranged in columns

I generate a CSV file with an extension .csv in which every piece of data in one line is separated with a comma: 1,2,3,4 1,2,3,4 The file is sent via email and I want that when a customer opens it ...
Timofey's user avatar
  • 1,321
65 votes
22 answers
789k views

Unable to get Excel to recognise date in column

I constantly have problems working with dates in Excel, I must be doing something wrong but I don't understand what. I have a spreadsheet, exported from our exchange server, that contains a column ...
Patrick's user avatar
  • 1,538
63 votes
2 answers
350k views

Comparing two strings in Excel?

I need to compare two strings in excel and determine if they are equal, the strings are in adjacent cells. For example, given: apple apple water water pear carrot apple water dog dog ...
Flethuseo's user avatar
  • 979
62 votes
5 answers
371k views

How to split a string based on ":" in MS-Excel?

My excel column is filled with words like this: 1.) ABC:DCF 2.) DCF:FED I want to split each word based on " : " and put the result in adjacent columns such that "ABC:DCF" in cell "A:1" becomes "ABC"...
user avatar
62 votes
10 answers
78k views

How to stop Excel following hyperlinks when I click on them?

In Word I can use Ctrl+Click on the rare occasion that I want to follow a link rather than, you know, do the editing that Word is actually for. Is there some way to get similar behaviour in Excel ...
dunxd's user avatar
  • 1,144
61 votes
13 answers
153k views

Shortcut in Word or Excel for Special Paste?

If I want to paste without any formatting, I have to go to the "Paste" button on the ribbon and click "Paste Special" and then "unformatted text". Is there a shortcut like Ctrl+V that'll ...
RoboShop's user avatar
  • 3,576
61 votes
3 answers
18k views

Why does the same data take more space in a text file than in an Excel file?

I have around 100000 rows of data. If I store this data in a text file format, it takes more space than if I store it in an Excel file format. Why is that?
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