Shortcut to Delete Row in Excel

As you know Excel is very user-friendly software for daily business purpose data manipulation. In daily data management we maintain the data in excel sheets however sometimes we need to delete the row and n number of rows from the data, in excel you can delete the selected row just by CTRL –(minus sign).

To quickly delete multiple rows, use the same shortcut.

Also, have a look at this list of Excel Shortcuts

How to Delete Row in Excel Shortcut?

Let’s understand the working of excel shortcut key with given below simple examples.

You can download this Delete Row Excel Shortcut Template here – Delete Row Excel Shortcut Template

Deleting a Row Using Excel (ctrl -) Shortcut – Example #1

Let’s consider a sales data set as shown in the below table to apply the delete row in excel shortcut operation.

Select the row which you want to delete from the sales data table, here we pick row number three.

Then just press CTRL – (minus sign)

You will get the below four options to decide the place for remaining data

That are shift cells left
Shift cells up (by default)
Entire Row
Entire Column

By pressing the R button you will select the entire Row from the available option, then hit OK.

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Output will be: Row number three will be deleted from the given data set.

Deleting a Row Using Right Click – Example #2

Let consider the below country wise sales data and you want to delete the row 2 from it.

Just select the row 2 and right click and select the delete option as shown in the below screenshot.

You will get the below four options to decide the place for remaining data

That are shift cells left
Shift cells up (by default)
Entire Row
Entire Column

Here, we select the entire Row a from the available option then hit OK.

The output will be:

Deleting the Multiple Rows – Example #3

In this example, we will apply the shortcut key on multiple rows at once.

Let’s consider the below table and select the multiple rows from the below table which you want to delete from this table. Suppose we want to delete the 3,4 & 5^th row from the below table.

Then select the 3,4 and 5^th row and press CTRL –

Select the Entire Row and Click OK

And you will get the below table after deletion.

Things to Remember

Always select the entire row option while deleting the row otherwise you will face the wrong data moving problem in your table.
Suppose you select the shift cell up option from the table then only the cell from the table gets deleted not the whole row and your data from the below cell get shifted upwards.
Suppose you select the shift cell left option from the table then only the cell from the table gets deleted not the whole row and whole row data gets shifted to left.
If you select the entire column option then the selected column gets deleted.

Delete Row Shortcut in Excel