How to Swap Two Columns in Excel 2023

If you use Excel tables frequently, you may need to rearrange your data columns from time to time. Sometimes you need to restructure the data, and other times you will want to place certain columns next to each other to compare them.

This article will show you multiple ways to easily change the position of your Excel columns with just a few clicks or keyboard shortcuts.

How to Swap Two Columns in Excel

In this article we bring you multiple ways to Swap columns in Excelcontinue reading and look at each of the steps in detail.

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Swap two columns with drag and drop

If you try to simply drag the column from one place to another, Excel will just highlight the cells instead of actually moving them. Instead, you need to click on the correct cell location while holding down the key Capital letters.

This is how you do it:

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• 1. Open your file Microsoft Excel.

• 2. Click the header of the column you want to move. This should highlight the entire column.

• 3. Move the mouse to the right edge of the column until the cursor changes to four arrows pointing in all directions.

• 4. Left-click on the column border and hold down shift.

• 5. Drag the column to the one you want to swap. You should see a line ‘|’ which indicates where the next column will be inserted.

• 6. Release the mouse and Shift key.

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• 7. The first column should come in place of the second, and move the second to the side.

• 8. Take the second column and use the same method drag and drop to move it where the first one was originally.

• 9. This should swap the positions of both columns.

ATTENTION: Trying to do this without holding down the Shift key could overwrite all the data in the target column.

Change column positions with the cut/paste method

If the drag and drop method does not appeal to you, you can use the cut and . For it, :

• 1. Open the file Microsoft Excel.
• 2. Select the column header you want to replace. This should highlight the entire column.
• 3. Right click on the column and choose the option “Cut”. You can also press Ctrl + X.
• 4. Select the header of the column you want to exchange with the first one.
• 5. When it is highlighted, right-click the column and select the option ‘Insert cut cells’ from the menu.

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• 6. This will insert the column in place of the original.

• 7. Use the same method to move the second column instead of the first.

Keep in mind that in some situations it may be advantageous to insert a new column at the desired location when copy/paste entire columns.

Swap two columns using keyboard shortcuts

Using keyboard shortcuts is the fastest way to swap two columns in excel. To do this, you must:

• 1. Click on any cell in a column.
• 2. Press and hold the key Ctrl + Space to highlight the entire column.

• 3. Press Ctrl + X for ‘cut it’.

• 4. Select the column you want to exchange with the first.
• 5. Press and hold Ctrl + Space to highlight it.
• 6. Press Ctrl + the plus sign (+) on the numeric keypad.

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• 7. This will insert the column in place of the original.
• 8. Choose the second column and hold Ctrl + Space to highlight it.
• 9. Press again Ctrl + X.
• 10. Move it to the place of the first one and press Ctrl + the plus sign (+).
• eleven. This will swap the position of both columns.

Multiple column swap

You can also use the method drag and drop to swap multiple columns. You will need to manually replace the position of both sets of columns. Follow these steps to swap multiple columns between one location and another:

• 1. Click a column header in the first location and drag the mouse over the adjacent columns you want to highlight. You can also hold down the key shift and click on the header of each column.
• 2. Hover over the right edge of the last column you chose. The cursor should turn into four arrows pointing in all directions.

• 3. Hold down the key Capital letters and drag the columns to the second location.
• 4. In the second location, the new columns should come in place of the original ones, while the original ones will be moved to the side.

• 5. Now select the original columns from the second location and use the same drag and drop method to move them to the first location.

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