Ah, everyone’s favourite Excel job. Data cleansing. I had a Lunch and Learn to do with an organisation and this was part of what I covered.
I looked at 5 topics:
- Trim (to remove unwanted spaces)
- Text to numbers (when your data comes in looking like a number – but it’s actually text)
- Flash Fill (hm, has its uses but I still recommend you check your data)
- Remove Merged cells (AKA The Spawn of Satan) – We all love a centred heading except when it comes to doing pretty much anything with Excel in which case – please see my AKA
- Text to Columns – When it all comes in packed into one cell but you need to separate it out.
You can view the video below here and download the completed file here.