In Excel, a blank cell doesn't always mean a cell with an empty string (""). An example to this is invisible characters like a new line character which can be entered by pressing the Alt + Enter key combination when you're in a cell. You can detect the cells that are actually blank by using Excel's Go To feature. In this article, we’re going to show you how to find blank cells in Excel using the Go To feature.
How to Find Blank Cells in Excel using Go To
- Begin by selecting your data including the blank rows
- Open the Go To Special dialog by following HOME > Find & Select > Go To Special in the ribbon
- Select the Blanks option
- Click OK to apply your selection
In our example, you can see that Excel selects only two cells, D6 and C7, even though the cells F6 and F7 look empty as well. This is not an error, but an example of "actually not blank cells". The cells like F6 and F7 will also affect results of the COUNTA function, which also counts these types of cells. For example, the =COUNTA(B3:F8) formula returns 28 as it ignores only cells D6 and C7.
You might want to be extra careful when removing blank rows using the Go To feature, because it selects individual blank cells in rows that have values. Removing them will cause data loss, even though you can revert your actions with Undo.
