Skip to main content

Kutools for Office — One Suite. Five Tools. Get More Done.

How to remove internal spaces in Excel string?

Author Sun Last modified

In some cases, you may need to remove the internal spaces from strings, such as remove all spaces, remove leading spaces, trailing spaces, or the extra spaces. In this article. I introduce some tricks on solving this task in Excel.

Remove all spaces from string

Remove extra spaces from string

Remove any kind of spaces types as you need

Remove all spaces from string

If you want to remove all spaces from a string, just use below formula:

Select a cell where you will put the result, and type this formula =SUBSTITUTE(A2," ",""), and press Enter key, then drag the auto fill handle over the cells which need this formula.

a screenshot of removing all spaces from strings

Remove extra spaces from string

If you just want to remove the extra space, leading spaces and the trailing spaces from strings, you can apply this formula:

Select a cell where you will put the result, and type this formula =TRIM(A2), press Enter key, and then the drag the auto fill handle over the cells which need this formula.

a screenshot of removing all extract spaces from strings

Remove spaces types as you need

But if you just only remove one type of spaces, for instance, you just want to remove the leading spaces, you can apply Kutools for Excel’s Remove Spaces utility.

After installing Kutools for Excel, please do as below: （Free Download Kutools for Excel Now!)

1. Select the stings you want to remove the spaces, and click Kutools > Text > Remove Spaces.

2. In the Remove Spaces dialog, check one option as you need, for instance, to remove leading spaces only, check Leading spaces option.

a screenshot of selecting a space type you want to remove

3. Click Ok. And only the leading spaces have been removed.

a screenshot showing the original string with spaces a screenshot of a right arrow a screenshot showing all leading spaces have been removed from strings

Best Office Productivity Tools

🤖 Kutools AI Aide: Revolutionize data analysis based on: Intelligent Execution   |  Generate Code  |  Create Custom Formulas  |  Analyze Data and Generate Charts  |  Invoke Kutools Functions…
Popular Features: Find, Highlight or Identify Duplicates   |  Delete Blank Rows   |  Combine Columns or Cells without Losing Data   |   Round without Formula ...
Super Lookup: Multiple Criteria VLookup  |   Multiple Value VLookup  |   VLookup Across Multiple Sheets   |   Fuzzy Lookup ....
Advanced Drop-down List: Quickly Create Drop Down List   |  Dependent Drop Down List   |  Multi-select Drop Down List ....
Column Manager: Add a Specific Number of Columns  |  Move Columns  |  Toggle Visibility Status of Hidden Columns  |  Compare Ranges & Columns ...
Featured Features: Grid Focus   |  Design View   |   Big Formula Bar   |  Workbook & Sheet Manager   |  Resource Library (Auto Text)   |  Date Picker   |  Combine Worksheets   |  Encrypt/Decrypt Cells   |  Send Emails by List   |  Super Filter   |   Special Filter (filter bold/italic/strikethrough...) ...
Top 15 Toolsets:  12 Text Tools (Add Text, Remove Characters, ...)   |   50+ Chart Types (Gantt Chart, ...)   |   40+ Practical Formulas (Calculate age based on birthday, ...)   |   19 Insertion Tools (Insert QR Code, Insert Picture from Path, ...)   |   12 Conversion Tools (Numbers to Words, Currency Conversion, ...)   |   7 Merge & Split Tools (Advanced Combine Rows, Split Cells, ...)   |   ... and more
Use Kutools in your preferred language – supports English, Spanish, German, French, Chinese, and 40+ others!

Supercharge Your Excel Skills with Kutools for Excel, and Experience Efficiency Like Never Before. Kutools for Excel Offers Over 300 Advanced Features to Boost Productivity and Save Time.  Click Here to Get The Feature You Need The Most...

Office Tab Brings Tabbed interface to Office, and Make Your Work Much Easier

  • Enable tabbed editing and reading in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Publisher, Access, Visio and Project.
  • Open and create multiple documents in new tabs of the same window, rather than in new windows.
  • Increases your productivity by 50%, and reduces hundreds of mouse clicks for you every day!

All Kutools add-ins. One installer

Kutools for Office suite bundles add-ins for Excel, Word, Outlook & PowerPoint plus Office Tab Pro, which is ideal for teams working across Office apps.

Excel Word Outlook Tabs PowerPoint
  • All-in-one suite — Excel, Word, Outlook & PowerPoint add-ins + Office Tab Pro
  • One installer, one license — set up in minutes (MSI-ready)
  • Works better together — streamlined productivity across Office apps
  • 30-day full-featured trial — no registration, no credit card
  • Best value — save vs buying individual add-in