How to remove anything in brackets in Excel?
When working with datasets in Excel, you may encounter text strings where certain parts of the data are enclosed in brackets. For instance, you might receive exported reports or data entries with annotations, supplemental information, or codes included inside parentheses within the text. In these cases, you may want to keep only the main text for further data processing or presentation needs, and therefore remove everything contained within the brackets, including the brackets themselves. As shown in the screenshot below, the content within brackets is to be eliminated, leaving a clean result in each cell.
Remove anything in brackets with Find and Replace feature
Remove anything in brackets with Kutools for Excel
Remove anything in brackets with Excel Formula
Remove anything in brackets with VBA Code
Remove anything in brackets with Find and Replace feature
Excel’s Find and Replace function can efficiently remove all text contained inside brackets (parentheses), including the brackets themselves. This method is straightforward and does not require any formulas or code, making it suitable for users of all proficiency levels. It works best when every cell contains only a single set of brackets, as complicated nested or multiple bracket instances may not be handled ideally by this approach.
1. Highlight the range of cells containing the bracketed text you want to clean, or select the entire worksheet if needed.
2. Navigate to Home > Find & Select > Replace, or simply press Ctrl + H to directly open the Find and Replace dialog box. See the screenshot below:
3. In the Find and Replace dialog, under the Replace tab, type (*) into the Find what field. Leave the Replace with field empty, as we want to delete the bracketed text completely.
4. Click Replace All. A prompt will appear letting you know how many replacements were made.
5. Click OK and close the dialog.
Tips: This method is quick and convenient for straightforward cases. You can apply it to a selected area, a whole sheet, or even an entire workbook. However, please note that the pattern (*) will match any content—including spaces—between any pair of parentheses in each cell. If there are multiple or nested parentheses in a single cell, only the outermost and everything contained will be removed at once, which may not always produce the intended outcome.
Precautions: The Find and Replace action cannot be undone if you perform further actions after replacing, so it’s advisable to save your file beforehand or work on a copy.
Remove anything in brackets with Kutools for Excel
Kutools for Excel provides a highly efficient and user-friendly alternative for removing anything in brackets across worksheets and workbooks. The Navigation pane's Find and Replace utility offers a flexible solution for quickly processing large volumes of data.
1. Click the Kutools tab at the top of Excel, then select Navigation to open the navigation pane. See the screenshot below:
2. Click the 
icon to expand the Find and Replace pane. In this pane, carry out these steps:
- (1.) Click the Replace tab.
- (2.) Enter (*) in the Find what box, and leave the Replace with field empty.
- (3.) Set the scope for your operation—the options include Selection, Worksheet, or Workbook, depending on where the bracketed data is.
- (4.) If working with Selection, use the
button to pick the target range. - (5.) Finally, click Replace All to remove content in brackets in the chosen area.
button to pick the target range.
3. After clicking Replace All, all data enclosed by brackets will be deleted instantly from the selected range.
Note: Due to the direct nature of this operation, the Undo function is disabled after using this feature. Backing up your workbook before proceeding is strongly recommended to avoid accidental data loss or undesired changes.
Advantages: Kutools allows you to handle multiple sheets and broad data ranges at once, greatly improving efficiency for large projects. Its intuitive interface minimizes the chance for error, making it well suited for users at any level.
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Remove anything in brackets with Excel Formula
For situations where you wish to maintain a dynamic solution—that is, to automatically update the cleaned result if the source text changes—you might prefer using Excel formulas. This approach is ideal for creating templates or working with data that is refreshed frequently. The following formula removes both the brackets and the enclosed content for a cell containing only one bracketed section:
1. Suppose your data is in cell A1. Enter this formula in the adjacent cell, such as B1:
=TRIM(REPLACE(A1,FIND("(",A1),FIND(")",A1)-FIND("(",A1)+1,""))2. Press Enter to confirm. Then, if you have more rows, drag the formula down to apply it to additional records. Select B1, use the fill handle (the square at the cell's bottom right), and drag it down as needed.
Formula details:
- FIND("(",A1): Finds the position of the first "(" in the string.
- FIND(")",A1): Finds the position of the first ")" after "(".
- REPLACE(...): Replaces everything from "(" to ")" (inclusive) with nothing ("").
- TRIM(...): Removes any extra spaces left behind after removal.
Applicable scenario: This formula works when each cell contains at most one set of brackets. It will not handle cells with multiple sets of parentheses. For those cases, consider a VBA solution or using helper columns.
Error reminder: If there is no bracket in the target cell, the formula will produce an error. You can prevent errors by wrapping the formula in IFERROR, for example:
=IFERROR(TRIM(REPLACE(A1,FIND("(",A1),FIND(")",A1)-FIND("(",A1)+1,"")),A1)This way, if there are no brackets, the original text will be returned unchanged.
Tip: If you need to handle multiple sets of brackets in a single cell, you may consider more advanced formulas or use VBA.
Remove anything in brackets with VBA Code
For more complex scenarios—such as when a cell contains multiple sets of parentheses, or when you want to process large ranges dynamically—a custom VBA macro is a powerful option. With VBA, you can seamlessly remove all bracketed content from cells across your worksheet.
1. To use VBA, first enable the Developer tab (if it’s not visible, go to File > Options > Customize Ribbon and check Developer), then click Developer > Visual Basic to open the VBA editor.
2. In the VBA editor, click Insert > Module, then paste the following VBA code into the module window:
Sub RemoveBracketedContent()
Dim Rng As Range
Dim WorkRng As Range
Dim xCell As Range
Dim xTitleId As String
Dim sVal As String
Dim re As Object
On Error Resume Next
xTitleId = "KutoolsforExcel"
Set WorkRng = Application.Selection
Set WorkRng = Application.InputBox("Select Range", xTitleId, WorkRng.Address, Type:=8)
If WorkRng Is Nothing Then Exit Sub
Set re = CreateObject("VBScript.RegExp")
re.Global = True
re.Pattern = "\([^\)]*\)"
For Each xCell In WorkRng
sVal = xCell.Value
If re.Test(sVal) Then
xCell.Value = Trim(re.Replace(sVal, ""))
End If
Next
End Sub3. After inserting the code, press F5 to run it. A dialog box will prompt, select the range of cells you want to process and click OK. Everything enclosed in brackets — including the brackets themselves — will then be immediately removed from the selected range.
Notes:
- This code removes all content inside round brackets (parentheses) within each cell, even if there are multiple sets or nested brackets.
- If your data includes brackets types other than parentheses (e.g., square brackets
[ ]), you need to modify there.Patternto match the corresponding symbols. - VBA changes cells directly, so make a backup before executing if you need to preserve your original data.
Advantages: VBA is highly flexible, making it great for handling large datasets or more complicated text patterns in your worksheet. It can save significant time in repetitive cleanup operations and is helpful when formula-based methods are insufficient.
Troubleshooting:
- If the macro does not run, check if macros are enabled in your Excel.
- If some cells are not processed as expected, confirm the type of brackets and cell content.
To summarize, the approach you choose depends on your specific needs: quick replacement for small simple datasets (Find and Replace); broader scope and flexibility (Kutools); dynamic updates (Formula); or advanced, multi-case coverage (VBA). Always remember to back up your worksheet before making comprehensive or irreversible changes, especially with VBA and bulk replacements. If errors occur or results aren’t as expected, double-check that the bracket type matches your actual data and that ranges are correctly selected. Also, consider using helper columns for formula approaches so that your original data remains intact.
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