How to delete Columns from Excel worksheet

Sometimes Excel worksheet data may contain Columns which you want to delete. The Columns which you want to delete may be wrong, duplicate or irrelevant.

In an Excel Worksheet, there are 16384 total columns available. When you delete a new Column, the total available number of Columns in Excel worksheet do not change. New blank Columns (equivalent to the deleted number of Columns) will be inserted at extreme right-side of the worksheet to maintain the total number of Columns the same.

To delete Columns from Excel worksheet, follow any of below methods.

Method 1 - How to delete a single Column from Excel worksheet

Step 1 - Select the Column which you want to delete by clicking on its Column letter. After selecting the Column letter, right-click anywhere on the Column and select "Delete" from the context menu. In this example I had selected Column B, by clicking on its Column letter.

Another way to achieve the same result is by running "Delete Sheet Columns" command from Excel Ribbon > "Cells" Group > "Delete" menu button as shown below.

Step 2 - Entire Column B is deleted from Excel worksheet. The Column right-side the deleted Column is moved to left by one Column to occupy the position of deleted Column. All Column at right-side of the deleted Column are moved to left by one Column, as shown in below image.

Below Animation shows how to delete single Column from Excel worksheet.

If you want to delete large number of Columns from an Excel worksheet, it is not an efficient method to delete single Column one by one. If you want to delete large number of Columns, follow any of below methods.

Method 2 - How to delete multiple contiguous Columns from Excel worksheet

To delete multiple contiguous Columns from Excel worksheet, follow these steps.

Step 1 - Select the Columns you want to delete from Excel worksheet by clicking, dragging and releasing mouse pointer on its Column letters. In this example, I want to delete Column B and Column C from Excel worksheet. Hence, I had selected Column B and Column C.

After selecting the Columns, right-click on any of the selected Columns and select "Delete" from context menu, as shown in below image.

Step 2 - Two selected contiguous Columns are deleted from Excel worksheet. Columns at the right-side the deleted Columns are moved to left to occupy the position of two deleted Columns. All Columns at right-side of the deleted Columns are moved to left-side by two Columns, as shown in below image.

Below Animation shows how to delete multiple contiguous Columns from Excel worksheet.

Method 3 - How to delete multiple noncontiguous Columns from Excel worksheet

To delete multiple noncontiguous Columns from Excel worksheet, follow these steps.

Step 1 - Select the noncontiguous Columns you want to delete by pressing & holding "Ctrl" key and then clicking on its Column Letters. In this example, I want to delete two noncontiguous Columns, Column B and Column D, from Excel worksheet. Hence, I had selected Column B and Column D.

After selecting multiple noncontiguous Columns you want to delete, right-click on any of the selected Rows and select "Delete" from context menu as shown in below image.

Step 2 - Column B and Column D are deleted from Excel worksheet. The Columns at right-side of Column B and Column D are moved to left to replace Column B and Column D, as shown in below image.

Below Animation shows how to delete multiple contiguous Columns from Excel worksheet.