Excel Tutorial – TRIM

The TRIM function in Microsoft Excel is a useful tool that allows you to remove unnecessary spaces from text strings. It is a handy function to use when you have imported data from another source and there are extra spaces around the text that you want to remove.

Here is a step-by-step tutorial on how to use the TRIM function in Microsoft Excel:

1. Open a new or existing spreadsheet in Microsoft Excel.
2. Identify the cell or range of cells that contain the text strings that you want to trim.
3. Select the cell where you want to enter the TRIM function.
4. Type the =TRIM( formula and press the Enter key.
5. In the TRIM formula, enter the cell or range of cells that contain the text strings that you want to trim as the argument.
6. Press the Enter key to complete the TRIM function. The trimmed text will be displayed in the selected cell.

Here is an example of a TRIM formula:

=TRIM(A1)

This formula trims the text in cell A1. If there are any leading or trailing spaces in the text, they will be removed.

You can also use the TRIM function to trim multiple cells at once by specifying a range of cells as the argument.

For example, if you want to trim the text in the range A1:A5, you can use the following TRIM formula:

=TRIM(A1:A5)

This formula trims the text in each cell in the range A1:A5. If there are any leading or trailing spaces in the text, they will be removed.

Note that the TRIM function only removes leading and trailing spaces from text strings. It does not remove spaces within the text. If you want to remove all spaces from a text string, you can use the SUBSTITUTE function in combination with the TRIM function.

Here is an example of a formula that uses the TRIM and SUBSTITUTE functions to remove all spaces from a text string:

=SUBSTITUTE(TRIM(A1), " ", "")

This formula trims the text in cell A1 and then replaces all spaces within the text with an empty string using the SUBSTITUTE function.

I hope this tutorial helps you understand how to use the TRIM function in Microsoft Excel. It is a useful tool that can help you remove unnecessary spaces from text strings.