Microsoft Excel – Clear or Delete? Is there a difference?

Yes, there is a difference. As you are editing your Excel workbooks, one of the most common actions is to clear or delete cells.

Clearing cells means erasing everything within them, whereas deleting actually deletes the entire cell (or cells). This may sound like an odd distinction, but it is not really.

When you delete a cell, the other cells around that cell move to fill where the cell used to be.

To clear the contents of cells you have selected, display the Home tab of the ribbon and click the Clear tool in the Editing group. When you do, you will see a submenu asking what you want to clear. Your choices allow you to clear any of the following:

• Clear All - Everything related to the cell except the cell itself.

• Clear Formats - Any formatting applied to the cell.

• Clear Contents - The information in the cell. Any formatting and comments remain in place.

• Clear Comments -The comments attached to the cell.

You should make your selection based on what you want cleared and then choose the appropriate menu item.

Deleting is done by selecting the cells you want to delete and then choosing Delete from the Edit menu. When you do this, Excel attempts to determine how the remaining cells in the worksheet should be moved to close up the hole that will be created by deleting the cells. If it can figure it out (for instance, if you are deleting an entire row or column), then the operation is completed. On the other hand, if it is not obvious how the remaining cells should be moved, Excel displays the Delete dialog box, which allows you to specify whether cells should be moved up or to the left.