How to delete entire columns based on header value in Excel?

In many cases, you may need to delete the entire columns based on header value in Excel. For example, you need to delete all columns which contain value “old” in the header. In this tutorial, we will show you methods of deleting entire columns based on header value in details.

Delete entire columns based on header value with VBA code
Delete entire columns based on header value with Kutools for Excel

Delete entire columns based on header value with VBA code

You can delete entire columns based on header value with VBA code. Please do as follows.

1. Press Alt + F11 keys simultaneously to open the Microsoft Visual Basic Application window.

2. In the Microsoft Visual Basic Application window, click Insert > Module. And then copy and paste below code into the Module window.

VBA code: delete entire columns based on header value

Sub DeleteSpecifcColumn()
	Set MR = Range("A1:D1")
	For Each cell In MR
		If cell.Value = "old" Then cell.EntireColumn.Delete
	Next
End Sub

Note: in the code, “old” is the header value which you want to delete the entire column based on. Please change to your header value manually. And A1:D1 is the column range that you want use.

3. Press the F5 key to run the code, the entire column which contains specified header value is deleted immediately.

Delete entire columns based on header value with Kutools for Excel

With Kutools for Excel’s Select Specific Cells utility, you can easily select all columns which contains the certain header value first, and then delete these selected columns at once. Please do as follows.

Before applying Kutools for Excel, please download and install it firstly.

1. Select the range which contains the columns you need to delete, and then click Kutools > Select > Select Specific Cells. See screenshot:

2. In the Select Specific Cells dialog box, select the Entire column option in the Selection type section, and in the Specific type drop-down list, select Equals option, then type the header value in the following box. And finally click the OK button. See screenshot:

3. Click the OK button in another popping up dialog box, then the columns which contain specified header value are selected immediately.

4. Right click the column header of selected column, and then click Delete from the right-clicking menu. Then all selected columns are deleted at once.

  If you want to have a free trial ( 30-day) of this utility, please click to download it, and then go to apply the operation according above steps.

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  • To post as a guest, your comment is unpublished.
    Mark · 4 months ago
    Hi, is it possible to do this with multiple column names?
    • To post as a guest, your comment is unpublished.
      crystal · 2 months ago
      Hi Mark,
      Try the below code. In the eighth line, please enclose each column name with double quotes and separate them by comma. Hope I can help. Thank you.

      Sub DeleteSpecifcColumn()
      Dim xFNum, xFFNum, xCount As Integer
      Dim xStr As String
      Dim xArrName As Variant
      Dim MR, xRg As Range
      On Error Resume Next
      Set MR = Range("A1:N1")
      xArrName = Array("old", "new", "get") 'enclose each column name with double quotes and separate them by comma
      xCount = MR.Count
      xStr = xArrName(xFNum)
      For xFFNum = xCount To 1 Step -1
      Set xRg = Cells(1, xFFNum)
      For xFNum = 0 To UBound(xArrName)
      xStr = xArrName(xFNum)
      If xRg.Value = xStr Then xRg.EntireColumn.Delete
      Next xFNum
      Next
      End Sub
  • To post as a guest, your comment is unpublished.
    Elias · 1 years ago
    Hey! This works well until you have two contiguous columns with the same header. Say your range is A1:A5, and A2 and A3 have the header 'old'. It will delete A2, but then the A3 will move to the place A2 used to occupy, and the code will skip it, as it will be looking at the new A3, the next cell on its range.
    • To post as a guest, your comment is unpublished.
      crystal · 1 years ago
      Hi Elias,
      As you mentioned, A2 and A3 have he same header "old". But they are in the same column, after applying the code, the whole column A will be removed immediately.
      I am not sure I get your point. Would be nice if you could provide screenshot of what you are trying to do.
  • To post as a guest, your comment is unpublished.
    Leonard Staggs · 3 years ago
    Sorry if this seems super basic but this is my first time trying vba. Using this how would I apply it to delete multiple column headers. I am actually trying to only keep certain header columns and delete the rest of a changing list.