Remove Extra Spaces from Text

Excel & Google Sheets

How it works

TRIM removes all spaces from the start and end of the text, and collapses any run of multiple spaces in the middle down to a single space. " Ana Torres " becomes "Ana Torres". It's the standard first step when cleaning imported data, and the most common cure for lookups that mysteriously return #N/A on values that look right. One caveat: web data often contains non-breaking spaces (character 160), which TRIM ignores — see the mistakes below.

TRIM(A2)

Strips edge spaces and collapses internal runs of spaces to one.

When to use it

Run TRIM over any pasted or imported text before using it in lookups, comparisons, or deduplication. Add a clean column, TRIM everything, then paste it back as values.

Common mistakes

• ✕TRIM "doesn't work" on data copied from the web.

  ✓That's usually a non-breaking space, which TRIM won't remove. Use =TRIM(SUBSTITUTE(A2,CHAR(160)," ")).

• ✕Trimming in place and deleting the original column too soon.

  ✓The TRIM column still references the original. Copy the trimmed column and Paste Special → Values before deleting the source.