4 Easy Ways to Add Columns in Excel (Step by Step)

Adding a column or multiple columns in Excel is a common task when you are working with Excel data. This tutorial provides 4 easy ways, including shortcuts, to quickly insert one or multiple columns (to the right or left of the selected one).

• Insert one column or multiple columns with built-in features
• Quickly add a specific number of columns to right or left
• Insert one column or multiple columns in a table
• Insert a column to right the of the selected one with VBA

Video: Add columns

Insert one column or multiple columns with built-in features

Step 1: Select the position you want to insert at and the number of columns you want to add

For example, to insert one column in the left of column B, please click the column B header to select the whole column B;
To insert two columns in the left of column B, click the column B header, then hold to drag the mouse to the right to select two columns (column B and column C). By that analogy, you can add any number of columns as you need.

Step 2: Right click to insert columns

After selecting columns, right click to select Insert from the context menu.

Tip: Hold Shift and Ctrl key, then press + on the main keyboard will do the same operation as the Insert command.

Result:

Quickly add a specific number of columns to right or left

To add columns in Excel using the built-in features, you need to select the related number of columns by dragging your mouse. However, by using the Add Columns feature of Kutools for Excel, you can quickly add columns to the right or left by entering the number of columns you want to add.

Step 1: Specify the adding position and numbers

1. Right click at a column header, for example, click 'B' to select column B, then choose Add Columns;

2. Specify the position and the number of columns, click Ok.

   

Result:

Insert a column or multiple columns in a table

Step 1: Select the same number of cells with the number of columns that you want to insert

Suppose you wants to insert two columns in the left of "Sex" column, select two cells across "Sex" and "Age" columns (B2:C2).

Tip: If you want to insert a column, just select a cell in the table column next to where you want to add the column.

Step 2: Right click to insert new column

Right click at the cells you have selected, in the context menu, click Insert, then in the sub menu, choose Table Columns to the Left option as you want.

Result:

Insert a column to the right of the selected one with VBA

Excel's built-in features only allow to add columns to the left of the selected column, if you want to add a column to the right of the selected one, a VBA code is provided to handle this job.

Step 1: Select a cell to the right of which you want to insert a column

Step 2: Press the Alt and F11 keys to enable Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications window,  then click Insert > Module to create a new blank module

Step 3: Copy below VBA code and paste it to the new module, then click the Run button  or press F5 key to run the code.

Sub InsertToRight()
'Extendoffice20230303
Dim xRg, xRg2 As Range
Dim xC As Long
Set xRg = Application.Selection
xC = xRg.Columns.Count
Set xRg2 = xRg.Columns.Item(xC)
Set xRg2 = xRg2.Offset(0, 1).EntireColumn
xRg2.Insert Shift:=xlToRight
End Sub

Result: