# Eliminating blanks and condensing data in Excel

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eliminating-blanks-and-condensing-data-in-excel/944718>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [June 20, 2021, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eliminating-blanks-and-condensing-data-in-excel/944718 "2021-06-20T23:06:37Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\
**Post date:** [June 27, 2021, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eliminating-blanks-and-condensing-data-in-excel/944718/21 "2021-06-27T20:01:57Z")

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There is no reason to write a bunch of SUMIF cell formulas, or do a bunch of sorting on individual columns, or FFS cut & paste data into Word to run a text search and replace on it. What the o.p. is asking for is exactly what PivotTable was designed to do, and is a trivial example of its usage. All the o.p. needs to do is select the data, go to **Insert\>\>Recommended PivotTables** , and select the option that sums on the appropriate index to get a count of each key, and then click **PivotTable Analyze\>\>Field List** to play around with fields and filters. This is probably a two or three step process and can be refreshed or repeated as the data changes with almost no effort or chance of breaking functionality.

Stranger

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