How to Move Rows in Excel? 5 Easy Methods
(Note: This guide on how to move rows in Excel is suitable for all Excel versions including Office 365)
While creating data on an Excel spreadsheet, it’d be a lot helpful if the data is organized or personalized to our needs. That’s why we keep moving and organizing our data all the time. It provides better readability and helps us make sense of huge worksheets with a large number of rows.
In Excel, you can move rows and columns in a couple of different methods. If you are a beginner, you might be wondering what is the easiest method to move rows in Excel.
In this guide, I will show you how to move rows in Excel using four different methods. I will also demonstrate how to move columns in Excel using the same methods.
You’ll learn:
- Method 1 – The Insert, Cut and Delete Method
- Method 2 – Move Rows or Columns Using the Shift Key
- Method 3 – Move and Replace Rows or Columns in Excel
- Method 4 – Move and Copy Rows or Columns in Excel
- Method 5 – Move Multiple Rows or Columns Simultaneously
Watch out video on how to move rows and columns in Excel
Method 1 – The Insert, Cut, and Delete Method
This way of moving a row/column is mostly used by beginners.
In this method, a blank row/column is first inserted into the preferred place, then the required row/column is cut and pasted into the empty row/column. Then, the previous empty row/column is deleted.
Note: To select a whole row or column click on the row number or the column name as shown below. For example: if you want to select the whole of the 8th row. Hover over the number 8 in the 8th row and the cursor changes to an arrow. Click on the row number to select the whole row.
How to Move Rows in Excel Using Insert, Cut, and Delete?
I will explain how to move rows using the following example.
Consider a spreadsheet with data of people signed up for a conference. There are 5 entries, including their names, gender, state, zip code, and country.
You want to organize the participants in the order they will be presenting. Say, Jarrod [row 6] will present after Clint [row 3]. You want to move row 6 next to row 3.
Here are the steps to move a row using the insert, cut, and delete method.
First, create an empty row under row 3. To do this, right-click on row 4 and click on Insert. This inserts an empty row in row 4. You can also insert a new row by selecting the row and pressing Ctrl + “+”.
And, the previously existing contents are moved below.
Select the row you want to move. Right-click anywhere in the row and click on Cut. Or, you can use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + X.
Once the cut is applied, the whole row appears with a moving dots animation.
Select the row you want to paste the cut data to. Once the row is selected, right-click and click on Paste, or use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + V. Note that this makes the cut row [row 7] empty.
Select the empty row. To delete it, right-click on the row and click on Delete. Or, use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + “-”.
This moves the rest of the content up, and moving the row up is successful.
How to Move Columns in Excel Using Insert, Cut, and Delete?
Moving a column is similar to moving a row. Follow these steps:
Select the destination column (say column B). Right-click on the column and click on Insert.
A new empty column will be inserted into column B, and the previous contents will be moved to the left.
Select the column you want to move. Right-click on the column and click Cut.
The cut section appears with a moving dots animation
Select the new row. Right-click on the column and click Paste the copied contents onto the new row.
And, select the empty row. Right-click the column and click on Delete.
This process is easy to understand and execute. But it takes a few extra steps to insert, cut, and delete rows.
Method 2 – Move Rows/Columns Using the Shift Key
There are better ways in Excel to easily move a row or column like a pro. The best one is to use the Shift key. Let us see how to do this using a simple example.
How to Move Rows in Excel Using the Shift Key?
Select a row to move. The selected row appears with a green border.
Move the cursor towards the green border. The cursor will change to a “
” icon
Hold Shift and drag the selected row to the place you want to move. The row where it will be moved will show up as a red line.
Drop the row, and the row will be moved below the red line. All the previous contents will be moved to the below subsequent rows.
How to Move Columns in Excel Using the Shift Key?
Select the column you want to move. The selected column appears with a green border.
Move the cursor towards the green border and the cursor will change into a “” icon.
Hold Shift and drag the column to the place you want to move.
The column will be moved to the right of the red line and the subsequent columns will be moved to the right.
Method 3 – Move and Replace Rows and Columns in Excel
There are two other possibilities while moving a row/column.
- Move and Replace
- Move and Copy
If you don’t hold shift while moving the rows. The rows will get replaced.
To move and replace a row, select the row and drag the row to the desired place (without holding shift).
Excel will throw a pop-up to warn you saying “There’s already data here. Do you want to replace it?”
If you click OK, the previous row will be replaced by the new row. And, the previous row will be empty.
Follow the same steps if you want to move a column.
Method 4 – Move and Copy Rows and Columns in Excel
You can also copy one row to another row without emptying it.
Select the row to move and drag the row to the desired place holding the Ctrl button
This creates a copy of the selected row in a new row and the previous data from the current row will be deleted.
Similarly, you can also move and copy a column to any desired location.
Method 5 – Move Multiple Rows or Columns Simultaneously
You can also move multiple rows and columns at a time. But note that, only adjacent rows/columns can be moved. For example row 3 and row 4 can be moved, but row 3 and row 5 cannot be moved together.
You can move, copy, or replace rows and columns as per the steps mentioned above.
Closing Thoughts
In this guide, we saw how to move rows and columns in Excel, the easy way. You can move the rows/columns by insert-delete method or using the shift method. We also saw how to move and replace, move and copy, multiple rows at a time. Try all of them and see which method suits you best.
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Simon Calder
Chris “Simon” Calder was working as a Project Manager in IT for one of Los Angeles’ most prestigious cultural institutions, LACMA. He taught himself to use Microsoft Project from a giant textbook and hated every moment of it. Online learning was in its infancy then, but he spotted an opportunity and made an online MS Project course - the rest, as they say, is history!