Find and Replace Excel Function

Find and replace found in Microsoft applications is a powerful function that we can use to manipulate data in any Microsoft applications like word, excel, power point etc. This tool can be used to find and replace any kind of data including blank spaces, account strings without any data, mis-spelt words, etc. In this article, I will focus on how to use this function in a Microsoft excel worksheet.

How to use Find and Replace Excel Function

Sometimes we receive accounting data from financial information systems applications but this data is not in a format that we need for further analysis. Below is an example:

1 A B C
2  Account Number   Description   Amount 
3 01-20001  Bank one   $       11,000
4 01-20002  Bank two   $         3,456
5 01-20003  Bank three   $       98,765
6 01-20004  Bank Three   $24,355,677
7 01-20005  Bank four   $       23,455
8 01-20006  Bank five   $     122,345
9 01-20007  Petty Cash   $         8,765
10 01-20008  Bank Seven- Payroll   $     997,876
11 01-20009  Bank Eight-Operating   $       12,345
12 01-20010  Bank Nine- Checking   $23,445,656
13 01-20011  Investments   $       98,765

You notice that the account number has a space between the numbers. Now you need to eliminate these spaces. But you are faced with a challenge because the only way you know is to go to the data and manually eliminate the spaces. However, the data is more than one hundred pages long. So this option is not the best because the approach will take you several hours and even if you do it, it is not full proof as it is bound to many errors.

Microsoft Excel has a function that can sort out this issue pretty fast. Below are the steps that you will need to take to solve problem expeditiously:

  1. In our example data, ensure that the data of our interest, that is, the account number is formatted as text
  2. Highlight the data by selecting cells A:3 to A:13
  3. If you are using Microsoft Excel 2007 version then go to Editing>Find and Select>Replace
  4. A Find and Replace window opens
  5. In the ‘find what’ box type  the ‘space’ that is  –     This is the item we need the excel function to look for in our selected data and then replace it (delete it)
  6. Then click ‘replace all’ tab. This function then replaces (deletes) all the un needed information. See the results below, easy eh!
1 A B C
2  Account Number   Description   Amount 
3 120001  Bank one   $       11,000
4 120002  Bank two   $         3,456
5 120003  Bank three   $       98,765
6 120004  Bank Three   $24,355,677
7 120005  Bank four   $       23,455
8 120006  Bank five   $     122,345
9 120007  Petty Cash   $         8,765
10 120008  Bank Seven- Payroll   $     997,876
11 120009  Bank Eight-Operating   $       12,345
12 120010  Bank Nine- Checking   $23,445,656
13 120011  Investments   $       98,765
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