The Data | Edit | Delete command is used to remove rows or columns from a table or clear the contents of selected cells. When an entire row or entire column is selected, click the Data | Edit | Delete command to remove the row or column from the table. When the selection does not include an entire row or column, the Delete command clears the contents of the selected cells, similar to the Clear command.
There are three methods for deleting data from a data table:
Delete data from cells: To delete data from cells, select the cells with the data to delete. When the desired cells are selected, click the Data | Edit | Delete command, right-click and select Delete, or press the CTRL+D keys on the keyboard . The data in the cells is deleted, leaving blank cells. Note: When using this method make sure to highlight only cells containing data and not the row or column headers.
Delete data from rows: To delete rows from the worksheet, highlight the row number(s) at the far left you want to delete and press the DELETE key on the keyboard or click the Data | Edit | Clear command. This will remove the data from the cells but leave the blank rows in place.
Delete rows from a data table: To remove the information in the rows and the entire row, highlight the row number(s) to delete. Right-click and select Delete or click the Data | Edit | Delete command. The rows AND the data are deleted, with the rows beneath the deleted rows moving up in the table.
Delete data from columns: To delete columns from the worksheet, highlight the column header(s) you want to delete and press the DELETE key or select Data | Edit | Clear. This will remove the data from the columns but leave the blank columns in place, even for required columns.
Delete columns from a data table: To remove the information in the columns and the entire column, highlight the column header(s) to delete. Right-click and select Delete or click the Data | Edit | Delete command. The columns AND the data are deleted. Required columns cannot be deleted. In addition, if you attempt to delete a column a warning will appear:
Click Yes to delete the column. Click No to not delete the column and return to the table.
Deleting a column cannot be undone. Click Yes in the warning dialog to delete the column. Click No to not delete the column and return to the table.
See Also