A column in Excel is a vertical alignment of cells. Each column has its unique address, which is labeled with letters (from A to XFD). There are 1,048,576 cells in a single column, and there are a total of 16,384 columns in a single worksheet.
Select a Column
To select a column, you simply need to click on the header of the column where you have the column alphabet, and it will select the entire column from the first cell to the last.
Another way to select an entire column is to use the keyboard shortcut. Once you select any of the cells in the column that you want to select, press and hold the Control key, and then press the spacebar. This will select the entire column.
Referring to a Column in Excel
As I said, and as you can see in the above snapshot, each column has its unique name, which is made up of letters. Now, to refer to a column, you need to use its name. If you want to refer to column A, then you need to use its address like A:A.
In the above example, you can see we are referring to column A by using its address in the sum function. Now, if you want to refer to multiple columns, you can use an address that refers to those columns.
Now in the above example, we are referring to the four columns from A to D and in the address, we have used the A:D which means from column A to column D.
And in the above example, we are referring to two columns that are not next to each other, and we have referred to them using their addresses separately, with a comma in between.
What is the Last Column in Excel
The last column in Excel is column XFD. In a single worksheet, there are 16,384 columns. This count is fixed: you can’t add more columns to a single worksheet, and if you want to add more data, you need to insert a new worksheet, which will have another 16,384 columns.
Can I Have the Column Name as a Number?
Yes, you can have a column name as a number instead of letters. For this, you need to change the reference style to R1C1.
With R1C1, you can change the column reference, and this allows you to refer to a column using a number. For this, go to the File Tab ➜ Options ➜ Formulas, and in the Working with formulas section, tick mark “R1C1 reference style”.
But before switching to it make sure to read about it.
And to go back to letters, untick the same option. The R1C1 setting is saved with the workbook, so a file you get from someone else may open with numbered columns.
Insert, Delete and Hide a Column
- Insert a column: select a column and press Ctrl + Shift + = (Ctrl + Plus). The new column goes to the left of the selected one.
- Delete a column: select the column and press Ctrl + – (Ctrl + Minus).
- Hide a column: select it and press Ctrl + 0, or right-click the column header and click Hide.
- Change the width: double-click the right border of the column header to AutoFit it to its content, or right-click the header ➜ Column Width to type a width.
Column Functions in Excel
Excel has two functions to work with column numbers. COLUMN returns the column number of a cell, and COLUMNS returns how many columns a range has. The first formula below returns 4 (column D), and the second returns 3:
=COLUMN(D1)
=COLUMNS(A1:C1)
To get the column letter of a column number (for example, 28 gives AB), you can use this formula:
=SUBSTITUTE(ADDRESS(1,28,4),"1","")
Frequently Asked Questions
How many columns are there in Excel?
Excel 2007 and later have 16,384 columns (A to XFD) in each worksheet. Excel 2003 and older had only 256 columns (A to IV).
Can I rename a column header from A to a name?
No. The column letters can’t be changed. Put your names in the first row as headers, or convert the data to an Excel table so the headers show in place of the letters when you scroll.
Why do my columns show numbers instead of letters?
The R1C1 reference style is turned on. Go to File ➜ Options ➜ Formulas and untick “R1C1 reference style”.