CLEANING UP YOUR EXCEL DATA

In this course, we will understand the various problems faced

with data in Excel and the various ways to solve them.
In this course, we will learn to
Readjust column-row placement with simple dragging
techniques.
Transpose and adjust data using tools like Find and Replace
and Convert text to columns.
Take full advantage of text functions to deal with unwanted
spacing and formatting issues.
Text to value as well as value to text conversions.
To reposition a column or row, select it and then move the
cursor over to the left or right edges of a column or to the top or
bottom edges of a row until it changes into a 4 arrowed
pointer. Then press the Shift key and drag the column or row.
Let go of the mouse and then the Shift key in order to finalize the
position of the column or row. This can also be achieved by
holding the right mouse button and dragging the 4 arrowed
pointer. On letting go of the right mouse button, we get a menu
wherein we can choose Shift Right (Left) and Move.
Sometimes, we may need to exchange the rows and columns. So
in such cases, we need to first copy the row, column or table to
be transposed and then while pasting select Paste Transpose
under Paste Special.
We can make use of Sorting feature to eliminate empty rows
in a database. We need to create a temporary column and put
sequence numbers and then click on the column containing
empty cells in some rows and sort A-Z to get the rows containing
empty cells at the bottom which can be deleted. Then we can
sort the sequence numbers column back Z-A to get the same
order as before without the empty rows. Then we can delete the
sequence numbers column.

 We can very effectively search and replace data in a sheet by

using the Replace option under the Find & Select drop down in
the Editing Group on the Ribbon.
We can also use the REPLACE function to replace a part of a
text string with a different text string.
When we want to replace special characters such as *, @, and
so in a text, we need to embed the special characters in-between
~ ~ (tilde) while typing in the Find what dialog box and replace
it with the required character or text or even nothing.
When we want to substitute a particular instance of a
character in a text string with another character or nothing, we
can use the SUBSTITUTE function to find the required instance
of occurrence of the character and substitute it. For example, if
we have a list of codes and we want to substitute the first
occurrence of 2 with Q in each code, then we can achieve that
by using the SUBSTITUTE function.
We can get rid of leading single quote ( ) by using the
SUBSTITUTE function in order to maintain consistency.
We can remove trailing minus signs while converting data to
negative signs by selecting the column containing the trailing
minus signs and choosing the Text to Columns option in the Data
Tools group under the Data Tab in the Ribbon. Then just keep
pressing OK and then finally Finish. The trailing minus signs will
disappear.
We can extract the dates from text by using text functions
such as the RIGHT, MID and LEFT functions.
We can use Text to Column for selected date formats.
When dates and times are formatted as text, they appear
on the left side of the cell. In order to perform any numerical
calculations on them, we need to extract the values by using the
DATEVALUE and TIMEVALUE function. Then we need to format

the value to get the dates and times which can be computed
upon.

To convert text data into numbers, we can use the VALUE

function as well as the Copy as Value option from the right
click menu.

We can manage leading zeroes in numerical and text codes by

using the TEXT and REPT functions.
We can combine data from various columns by using the
CONCATENATE function.
Some important text functions:
PROPER - converts a text string to proper case i.e. first
letter capitalized and the rest in lower case.
TRIM - removes leading and trailing spaces and converts
multiple inner spaces into a single space.
UPPER - converts a text string to upper case i.e. all
letters are capitalized.
LOWER - converts text to lowercase
REPT - repeats text a given number of times.
CLEAN removes all nonprintable characters from text.
LEN returns the number of characters in a text string.
EXACT checks to see if two text values are identical.
FIND finds one text value within another (casesensitive).
SEARCH finds one text value within another (not casesensitive).