How to Remove Extra Spaces in Google Sheets

Cells pick up stray spaces from data imports and from pasting in text that was typed or copied elsewhere: Word, Docs, a webpage, a CSV export. This guide covers Sheets' own TRIM formula, the step that makes it stick, a filter-based blank-rows cleanup, and a way to check for spaces that don't show up visually.

The TRIM function

In an empty column next to your data, add a formula and fill it down:

TRIM removes spaces from the start and end of the cell and collapses any run of spaces between words down to one. It's a formula, though: the original cell is untouched until you copy the TRIM column, then Paste special → Values only back over the original column. Delete the helper column once the values have landed.

Find and Replace for double spaces

For a quicker fix without a helper column:

This only catches spaces between words. It won't touch spaces at the very start or end of a cell the way TRIM does, so it's a shortcut for the common case, not a full replacement for TRIM.

Removing blank rows

Sheets has no Go To Special like Excel, so there's no one-click way to select every blank cell in a range. A filter does the same job in a few extra steps:

The filter now shows only the blank rows. Select their row numbers, right-click, and delete rows, then go back to Data → Remove filter to see the rest of the sheet again.

Checking for spaces you can't see

Compare a cell's length before and after trimming:

If the two numbers differ, the cell has spaces TRIM would remove. TRIM alone leaves a non-breaking space (common in data pasted from a webpage) untouched, since it isn't a regular space. Clear those with:

For data you're about to paste into Sheets anyway, running it through the free tool first often saves the formula-and-paste-as-values round trip entirely.