Move data in Excel

Moving your cells, rows, or columns is a common operation performed by every Excel user in their day-to-day life.

Let's understand this using an example. Suppose I have a dataset (given below), and I want to move the highlighted row to the last position of the Excel table.

The common method that most of you will think of is by copying the content of the row, pasting the copied row to the desired location, and later deleting the content from its original location.

But don't you think it's a bit of a lengthy process. So why not shift to a faster way to move rows and columns in Excel. While working with Excel, you may regularly need to insert, move or delete cells. Whenever cells are inserted, moved, or deleted, the existing cells shift, along with their data, to accommodate for the modifications to adjacent cells.

In this tutorial, we will discover some methods that will quickly help you to move your rows and columns from one place to another.

Move Data using Cut and Insert

1. Select the data you want to move from one place to another.
   
2. Place your cursor on any of the selected cells and right-click on it. The following window will be displayed. Select the cut option.
   
3. Next, choose the cell where you want to shift the data. For instance in the below example I have chosen B9 cell.
   
4. Again right-click on the selected cell, and from the window pane, select the Insert option-> Insert Copied Cells.
   
5. As you can see in the following output, the data will be moved to the desired location.
   

Move Data using Shift key

Moving data using the shift key is basically the same as cutting and pasting data, and it delivers the same output. Both the Excel operations enable the users to move large chunks of Excel data from one place to another. But move data using the shift key is essentially used to move the data over a short distance where the mouse cursor could be easily dragged.

Let's see how we can easily move Excel rows and columns using the Shift key.

Move Rows in Excel

Let's suppose you have the following data entries in your Excel worksheet. You want to move the highlighted row to cell B9.

Follow the below-given steps to move rows in Excel quickly:

1. Place your cursor on the respective row to select it.
   
2. Press the Shift Key on your keyboard.
   
3. Move your mouse pointer to the end of the selected row. You would notice that the cursor will change to the move icon (a four-directional arrow).
   
4. You still require pressing the shift key and moving the cursor to the new location where you want to place the information.
   
5. The entire row will be cut from its original place and moved to the new allotted location.
   
6. At this point, leave the mouse cursor and the Shift key.

Note: Though I referred to row, in the above example, I have selected some cells from the row. But by following the above steps, you can move an entire row as well, and it will quickly move the entire row to a new location.

Here are some key points one should know about the Excel 'Move' method:

• With the help of this method, one can only move contiguous cells, rows, or columns. This method is not applicable for non-contiguous or adjacent cells, rows, or columns. For instance, you can't move rows 2 and 7 together, and you have to move them one by one. However, you can move rows 2 and 3 together.
• Whenever you move or shift cells in a row or column using the move shift key method, it will not affect any other data (above or below / to the right or left of the cell) in your Excel spreadsheet.

Move Columns in Excel

So far we learned how to move cells of a row from one place to another. Using the same method can also be applied for moving columns in Excel.

Follow the below-given steps to move rows in Excel quickly:

1. Place your cursor on the respective column (or adjacent columns) to select it.
   
2. Press the Shift Key on your keyboard.
   
3. Move your mouse pointer to the end of the selected row. You would notice that the cursor will change to the move icon (a four-directional arrow).
   
4. You still require pressing the shift key and moving the cursor to the new location where you want to place the selected column. For instance, in the below example we want to move to column H.
   
5. The entire column will be cut from its original place and shifted to the new allotted location.
   
6. At this point, leave the mouse cursor and the Shift key.