Excel Video 160 covers another easy Excel function. This time we’ll use TRIM. TRIM simply removes extra spaces from text. Older data systems occasionally filled any extra space at the end of the data with actual spaces. TRIM is an easy way to get rid of those spaces.
Watch Excel Video 160 to see one approach to cleaning up downloaded data. Often instead of keeping the downloaded data in one column and the cleaned up data in a separate column I’ll copy the cleaned up data and Paste Special on top of the original data. Paste Special looks different in Excel 2010, so make sure you know which picture in the ribbon means Paste Values. If you’ve never used Paste Values before, it simply pastes the result of the formula instead of pasting the formula.
There are a couple of text functions that aren’t used as much now as they used to be. We’ll cover one of those, called REPT, next time. I’ll show you when I still use REPT. I look forward to seeing you then.
