How to Delete Blank Rows in Excel

When you delete a data in a row, Excel replaces it with null data that appears as a blank row. In addition to this, blank rows also sometimes appear while copy-pasting data from an external row to your spreadsheet. 

In most scenarios, these blank rows serve no purpose to the spreadsheet, and you would understandably want to eliminate them. This article is for you if you wish to delete blank rows in your Excel workbook.

How to Delete Blank Rows in Excel?

Here are four ways you could delete blank rows in Excel. You do not have to be experienced in Excel to attempt these methods, as they’re very beginner-friendly. Depending on the size of blank spaces you wish to remove from your spreadsheet, refer to the ways discussed below.

Remove Individual Rows

If you only have a few existing blank rows, you could individually remove these rows from your Excel grid. You can manually remove individual rows in two ways:

• from the home tab
• using a keyboard shortcut. 

If you prefer using shortcuts, select the row you wish to remove and hit the combination of Ctrl + (-) to remove the entire row.

Refer to the following steps if you want to remove individuals rows on Excel from the home tab:

1. Open your Excel worksheet.
2. Select the empty row.
3. From the Home tab on the menu bar, select the drop-down menu for Delete.
   
4. Choose Delete Table Row.
   

Use Sort & Filter Tool

The Sort & Filter tool is a great way to categorize your data in a table. Using this tool, you can hide selected data from the table. You can also use the sort & filter tool only to show the blank rows in your table and then delete them. If you have a lot of blank rows in your table, this tool can help you get the job done quickly. 

Follow these steps to use the Sort & Filter tool to remove blank rows in your Excel spreadsheet:

1. Launch Excel to open your file.
2. Select your table with the empty rows.
   
3. Head to the Home tab on the menu bar.
4. From the Editing section, select Sort & Filter > Filter.
   
5. Select the drop-down icon on the top of your table.
6. Deselect the box next to Select All.
   
7. Scroll down and select the box next to (Blanks) > OK.
   
8. Select the empty rows and use Ctrl + (-) to delete all the empty cells.
   
9. Confirm your action by choosing OK in the warning message box.
   
10. Click the drop-down icon next to the header and select the box next to Select All > OK.
    

Use Find & Select Tool

You could also use the find & select tool to locate and select the blank rows in your Excel spreadsheet. Then, you could head to the home tab to delete the selected cells or use the keyboard shortcut to delete the empty rows. Similar to the previous method, you can use this method when you have a lot of blank rows to remove.

If you wish to use the Find & Select tool to delete blank rows from your grid, follow these steps:

1. Open your Excel workbook. 
2. Select your table with the empty rows, then head to the Home tab.
   
3. From the ribbon, select Find & Select > Go To Special.
   
4. Select the box next to Blanks > OK.
   
5. Use the combination Ctrl + (-) on your keyboard to remove the selected blank rows.
   
6. In the pop-up, choose where you want the corresponding rows to shift and press OK.

Use Power Query

If you’re a bit more experienced in using Excel, you can use power query to remove the blank rows from your worksheet. Compared to other methods, this method is more-straightforward as it does not require you to go through multiple ways to remove the blank sheets. If you want to use power query to delete the empty rows from your grid, follow these steps:

1. Open your workbook, then select your table from the grid.
2. Head to the Data tab and choose From Table from the Get & Transform section.
   
3. Select the drop-down menu for Remove Rows from the Home ribbon on the Power Query Editor.
4. Choose Remove Blank Rows.
   
5. Select Close & Load from the Home ribbon.