How to Delete Columns in Excel (The Right Way)

You may be thinking that the way to delete columns in Excel is to highlight the columns you want to delete and press the delete button on your keyboard.

That’s not quite right. ❌

In this article, we’ll show you different ways how to delete columns in Excel. Whether you want to delete one column or multiple columns at once, we’ve got you covered! 😊

Download this sample workbook we’ve created for you to work on as you follow along the tutorial.

Table of Contents

Method 1: Delete Columns by Excel Ribbon

When you open a new Excel file, you’ll see blank cells arranged neatly in columns and rows. 👀

Columns are the vertical portion of the Excel worksheet, and each column is identified by a letter on top of the worksheet.

This is called the Column Header.

To delete an entire column in your worksheet, you need to:

Step 1) Click the column header. This will highlight the entire column.

In our sample workbook, click Column B.

Step 2) Go to the Home Tab.

Step 3) In the Cells group, click the drop-down arrow of the Delete Cells button.

Step 4) Select Delete Sheet Columns.

And that’s it! 🙌

The entire column B is deleted and the following columns shift to the left.

Pro tip

You can do the same steps above using a keyboard shortcut to Delete columns. Just click the column header and press Alt + H + D + C. ⚡

Method 2: Delete Columns by Right-click

Another way to delete columns is by using right-click.

To do that,

Step 1) Right-click the column header of the column you want to delete.

Step 2) Select Delete from the right-click options.

This is another way to delete columns in Excel.

But what if you need to delete multiple columns in your worksheet? Do you need to manually click the column header and click delete? 🤔

Delete multiple columns at once

You can save yourself from manually deleting each column that you don’t need.

Whether these columns are next to each other or far apart, Excel allows you to delete multiple columns at once.

Delete adjacent columns

Let’s say you want to delete the Jan to Mar data in our sample workbook. These columns are next to each other (adjacent).

To delete them👇

Step 1) Click on the column header of the first column you want to delete. In our example, it’s Column B.

Step 2) Press the Shift key.

Step 3) Click the column header of the last column you want to delete. In our example, it’s Column D.

This will automatically highlight the middle column (Column C)

Step 4) Delete columns by using the Delete cells button in the Excel ribbon or by clicking Delete from the right-click option.

As you can see, this deletes the three columns at once, and the rest of the columns shift to the left.

Alternatively, you can highlight the adjacent columns using your mouse and delete them.

Delete non-adjacent columns

When the columns you want to delete are not next to each other, you can still delete them at once. The key here is the Control key. 🔑

Step 1) Click on the column header of the first column you want to delete. In our example, it’s column B.

Step 2) Press Ctrl.

Step 3) Click the column header of the next column you want to delete. If you want to delete more columns that are non-adjacent, make sure you press Ctrl at all times.

Once you’ve selected all the columns you want to delete,

Step 4) Delete columns by using the Delete cells button in the Excel ribbon or by clicking Delete from the right-click option.

This deletes the selected non-adjacent columns at once. 😊

That’s It—Now What?

Good job! 👍

I believe you’ve now mastered how to delete columns in Excel. With this, you can easily clear out columns of data you don’t need or remove extra blank columns in your worksheets.

Have you ever thought about what else you can do in your Excel sheets? Or have you ever wondered which is better: Excel sheets or Google Sheets? 💭

All these questions (and more!) are answered in the Excel tutorials we’ve attached below.

• Google Sheets vs Excel: How to Choose The Right One
• Excel Columns: How to Add or Insert a New Column Easily
• How to Move Columns in Excel (6 Easy Methods)
• How to Insert Multiple Rows in Excel (and Single Rows too!)
• How to Remove Blank Rows in Excel at the Bottom