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Excel Table Cleaning Plan: Trim, Case, Duplicates and Dates

Table output Has example

• 📊 Excel

Clean a pasted Excel table step by step: trim spaces, fix case, remove duplicates and standardise dates, with checks.

The Open buttons send the prompt text as currently shown below to that site only when you click. Fill in the placeholders first.

[VERIFY] is an editorial flag, not a blank to fill. Wherever the prompt shows [VERIFY], check that item against a reliable source before you use it.

Give me a cleaning plan for an Excel table. Column headings and ten example rows exactly as they appear, including the untidy ones: [SAMPLE_ROWS]. What the cleaned table should look like: [TARGET]. Whether it will be refreshed or is a one-off: [ONE_OFF_OR_REPEAT]. Columns that identify a unique record: [KEY_COLUMNS].

Work in this order and explain each step in plain words. One, keep the original sheet untouched and work on a copy. Two, remove extra spaces (TRIM) and non-printing characters (CLEAN). Three, standardise case (UPPER, LOWER, PROPER), warning that PROPER mishandles names such as McDonald or O'Neil. Four, fix dates stored as text: how to recognise them, convert them with a formula or Text to Columns, and the risk of day-month swaps. Five, find duplicates on the key columns and decide which record to keep. Six, check: row counts before and after, blanks in key columns, and a sample compared by eye.

Output a table with Step, Action, Formula or tool, Result on my sample and Check, marking menu names [VERIFY]. Show the arithmetic of rows removed, for example 1,250 rows minus 14 blank and 6 duplicates leaves 1,230, and never delete data without keeping the original. Add a note on when to use Power Query instead so the steps repeat on refresh.

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Replace each bracketed placeholder with your own details, then paste into Any AI or another assistant.

Invented table of 1,250 rows. Row 5 'smith ,JANE ' becomes 'Smith, Jane' after TRIM and PROPER. Date text '03/04/2026' (day first) is converted to 3 April 2026 with a check that no day exceeds 12 in the ambiguous rows. Duplicates on Email: 6 removed. Blank emails: 14 rows set aside for follow-up. Count check: 1,250 - 14 - 6 = 1,230 rows remain. Totals check: the Amount column sums to 482,300.00 before and after. Original sheet kept as 'Raw'. Three random rows compared by eye with the source.

• excel