Google Sheets is an online web application that allows you to edit spreadsheets efficiently. You don’t have to download or install any software or application on your computer. You can use your email id to log in to Google Sheets and start editing it in the online browser without any trouble.
You can include thousands of columns and rows in Google Sheets and edit or create data in those cells easily. It is lightweight and will speed up your process significantly. One of the best things about Google Sheets is that it allows multiple people to edit Google Sheets simultaneously.
If the publisher has enabled access, many users can edit and modify data in the Google Sheets in real-time, which is not possible in many spreadsheet applications. There are multiple functionalities that Google Sheets has to offer for its users.
It also allows the users to apply a formula to an entire column. You can manually apply a formula for each cell if it is only a few rows. But sometimes, you would be required to edit a large amount of data that will have thousands of cells in it. You can’t manually add a formula to every one of them.
In those cases, we will be taking advantage of the Google Sheets formula automation feature that would allow us to apply a single formula to the entire column in an instant.
Using Shortcut Keys To Apply Formula To Entire Column
We are going to use some basic and simple methods to apply formulas to an entire column. Most people know many things about Google Sheets but miss out on some basics. They tend to drag and select the whole column instead of just clicking on the header.
Dragging and selecting cells in a column sometimes might be useful, but it will only consume your time if you are trying to select a column with thousands of rows. So, just click on the header, which will select the entire column in an instant.
Then enter the formula in the FX bar, and press Enter on your keyboard. Now, you are all done with entering the right formula. The only thing that is pending is to apply it to the entire column. To do that, use the shortcut keys Ctrl + D or Ctrl + Enter. Either of them will get the work done, and the formula will be applied to the entire column in an instant. This is the fastest and easiest way to apply a formula to an entire column.
Using The Fill Handle To Apply Formula To Entire Column
This is also another easy-to-use method that will apply the formula to an entire column. To demonstrate this method, we are going to use trim whitespace as an example. Sometimes, the spreadsheet can contain uneven spaces, which can be pretty annoying to correct. It would be impossible if the column had thousands of rows in it.
So, we will be using the Fill Handle to apply a formula to the entire column. The formula to trim whitespace in a column is =Trim (A1). By giving the input as A1, we tell the Google Sheets to use this formula only on the first cell of the column. If you have hundreds of cells in the column, you can’t go to every one of the cells and change the input value.
To make it easier, we are going to enter this formula in a nearby new column. Touch the cell and enter the formula and click enter. It will give you a result of eliminating or trimming unnecessary spaces in the cell.
Now, click on the fill handle. The fill handle is the small rectangle-shaped blue icon on the right side bottom of a cell when you click on it. When you double-click on it, it will apply the same formula but change the input for each and every cell in the column.
As you can see in the image, the unwanted spaces are trimmed after double-clicking the fill handle in the B1 cell. This is also an efficient way to apply a formula to an entire column.
