In Excel: select the whole rows by their row numbers, right-click the selection and choose Delete — the rows below shift up to close the gap; the keyboard shortcut is Ctrl+Minus.
Click a row number and drag (or Ctrl-click each header) to select the whole rows you want to delete.
Right-click anywhere in the highlighted rows and choose Delete, or use Home ▸ Delete ▸ Delete Sheet Rows.
The rows are removed and everything below shifts up to close the gap.
For speed, select the row(s) and press Ctrl+Minus instead of right-clicking.
What this does
Deleting rows removes the selected rows entirely — their data is gone and everything below moves up to fill the space, so there is no empty gap left behind. You select whole rows by their row-number headers, then right-click ▸ Delete or use Home ▸ Delete ▸ Delete Sheet Rows. Ctrl+Minus does the same from the keyboard. To delete several rows that are not next to each other, hold Ctrl and click each row number first, then delete them all in one step. Because the rows physically disappear, any formula that pointed at a deleted row breaks with #REF!, so check totals that referenced the removed range. Keep the inputs visible and clearly labelled and the whole thing stays auditable — anyone who opens the file later, including you, can see at a glance exactly what feeds the result and change one assumption without hunting through the formula. Treat “excel delete row keyboard” as a small repeatable workflow rather than a one-off click you hope to remember next time. Use a small test block before the live file, so any surprise in the affected rows shows up while it is still harmless. When this is a ribbon command, the selection matters more than the button: confirm the range, apply the command, then spot-check the output before saving. That turns a data step that keeps your analysis trustworthy into a method you can reuse, explain, and defend when the workbook leaves your screen.
A worked example
You want to drop rows 5, 6 and 7. Click row header 5 and drag down to row 7 to select all three whole rows, right-click anywhere in the selection and choose Delete — rows 5 to 7 vanish and the data that was in row 8 onward moves up to fill rows 5, 6, 7 and beyond. For a quick keyboard version, select the rows and press Ctrl+Minus. Deleting rows is how you clear out records you no longer need without leaving holes in the data — the sheet packs back together as the rows below move up. Unlike clearing cell contents, the rows physically go away, so the layout stays tight and continuous. One habit worth forming early: name the cells that hold your inputs, so the formula reads in plain language instead of a string of cell addresses. A reviewer — or you in three months — can then follow the logic without decoding what B7 and D2 were supposed to mean, which is most of what makes a sheet maintainable.
In Google Sheets
Everything above works in Google Sheets too. Excel and Sheets share the formula syntax used here; only the surrounding menus are arranged differently. That portability is deliberate — learn it once and it follows you between the two tools and across Windows and Mac. Nothing on this page is behind a login: the tool runs entirely in your browser, the formula is shown in full with one-click copy, and the steps work the same on Windows and Mac. That is the whole promise here — the exact answer, a way to prove it on your own numbers, and just enough context to make it stick. If you take one thing from this page on “excel delete row keyboard”, make it the habit rather than the keystrokes: set the problem up with labelled inputs, reference those cells, and let Excel do the recomputing. Bookmark the page for the syntax, but do the example once in a blank sheet and check it against the tool above — five minutes of hands-on practice fixes the method in memory far better than re-reading, and it surfaces the small snags while they are still harmless. After that the technique is genuinely yours: faster than searching for it again, and reliable enough to drop into work that other people depend on.
Common mistakes
- Selecting cells instead of whole row numbers, which opens the Delete dialog asking how to shift the surrounding cells.
- Forgetting that deleting a row a formula points at throws
#REF!— check totals that referenced the removed range. - Pressing Delete (the key) expecting the rows to disappear — that only clears the contents; use right-click ▸ Delete or Ctrl+Minus to remove the rows themselves.
- Deleting scattered rows one by one instead of Ctrl-clicking every row number first and removing them in a single step.
Frequently asked questions
What is the shortcut to delete a row?
Select the whole row and press Ctrl+Minus (Ctrl and the - key). If you selected cells rather than a whole row, the same shortcut opens the Delete dialog so you can choose Entire row.
How do I delete several non-adjacent rows at once?
Hold Ctrl and click each row number you want, then right-click and Delete (or press Ctrl+Minus). All the selected rows are removed together and the remaining rows close up.
Why did my formulas break after deleting a row?
A formula that referenced a deleted row has nothing left to point at, so it returns #REF!. Rebuild the reference around the rows that remain, or delete inside the referenced range so it shrinks cleanly.