Excel telling me my blank cells aren’t blank

calendar_today Asked Apr 13, 2013
thumb_up 13 upvotes
history Updated April 14, 2026

Direct Answer

a simple way to select and clear these blank cells to make them blank: Press ctrl + a or pre-select your range Press ctrl + f Leave find what empty and select match entire cell…. This is a prose walkthrough, ranked #104th of 303 by community upvote score, from 2013.


The Problem (Q-score 8, ranked #104th of 303 in the Excel VBA archive)

The scenario as originally posted in 2013

So in excel I’m trying to get rid of the blank cells between my cells which have info in them by using F5 to find the blank cells, then Ctrl + – to delete them, and shift the cells up. But when I try to do that, it tells me that there are ‘No cells found’.

I’ve noticed that if I select my ‘blank’ cells, Excel still counts them: Like in this picture which is weird. But if I press Delete on those selected cells, the count goes away, and then I can go F5, blanks, Ctrl + – and Shift cells up, and it works…

So my question is how can I still do that, but with these blank cells which Excel thinks aren’t blank? I’ve tried to go through and just press delete over the blank cells, but I have a lot of data and realized that it would take me WAY too long. I need to find a way to select these ‘blank’ cells within a selection of data.

Thanks in advance for your help! 🙂

Why community consensus is tight on this one

Across 303 Excel VBA entries in the archive, the accepted answer here holds solid answer (above median) status — meaning voters are unusually aligned on the right fix.


The Verified Solution — solid answer (above median) (+13)

Verbal answer — walkthrough without a code block

Note: the verified answer is a prose walkthrough. If you need a runnable sample, check Excel VBA entries ranked in the top 10 of the same archive.

a simple way to select and clear these blank cells to make them blank:

  1. Press ctrl + a or pre-select your range
  2. Press ctrl + f
  3. Leave find what empty and select match entire cell contents.
  4. Hit find all
  5. Press ctrl + a to select all the empty cells found
  6. Close the find dialog
  7. Press backspace or delete


When to Use It — classic (2013–2016)

Ranked #104th in its category — specialized fit

This pattern sits in the 96% tail relative to the top answer. Reach for it when your scenario closely matches the question title; otherwise browse the Excel VBA archive for a higher-consensus alternative.

What changed between 2013 and 2026

The answer is 13 years old. The Excel VBA object model has been stable across Office 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021, 365, and 2024/2026 LTSC, so the pattern still compiles. Changes that might affect you: 64-bit API declarations (use PtrSafe), blocked macros in downloaded files (Mark-of-the-Web), and the shift toward Office Scripts for web-first workflows.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Is this above-median answer still worth copying?
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Answer score +13 vs the Excel VBA archive median ~4; this entry is solid. The score plus 8 supporting upvotes on the question itself (+8) means the asker and 12 subsequent voters all validated the approach.

The answer has no code block — how do I turn it into a snippet?
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Use the walkthrough above as a checklist, then open a top-10 Excel VBA archive entry for a concrete starting template you can adapt.

Published around 2013 — what’s changed since?
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Published 2013, which is 13 year(s) before today’s Office 2026 build. The Excel VBA object model has had no breaking changes in that window. Three things to re-test: (1) blocked macros on downloaded files (Mark-of-the-Web), (2) 64-bit API declarations (PtrSafe, LongPtr), (3) any shift toward Office Scripts for web scenarios.

Which Excel VBA pattern ranks just above this one at #103?
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The pattern one rank above is “Merge multiple rows based on column and sum values (Excel, Google Refine, Google spreadsheet)”. If your use case overlaps, compare both before committing.

Data source: Community-verified Q&A snapshot. Q-score 8, Answer-score 13, original post 2013, ranked #104th of 303 in the Excel VBA archive. Last regenerated April 14, 2026.

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