Introduction

In this article we will learn how in Excel and VBA to delete a row. This is an extremely common task and if you're using VBA you'll want to know how to tackle it correctly.

Excel VBA Delete Row

In an ordinary Excel worksheet we can delete a row by pressing CTRL plus signs + and -, and the excel will ask you what actions to take after deleting the row. See below:

With VBA you can delete a set of rows or just a single row. There are a couple functions we can use to accomplish the task:

Worksheets.Rows(insert row number here).Delete is used as the syntax in deleting a row while Range(“insert cell number here”).EntireRow.Delete is also used as the method in deleting a row.

See below example reference for an example:

Let's take a look at the code to delete a row:

Sub example1()  

Worksheets("Sheet1").Rows(5).Delete  

End Sub  

The macro code explanation:

• Worksheets("Sheet1") - this is the worksheet's name.
• Rows(5) - this indicates the row to be deleted.
• Delete - this is indicating the function to be used.

And after running the code row #5 is deleted. See the result below:

Deleting a row then shifting the rows up

Code:

Sub example2()  

Worksheets("Sheet1").Rows(5).Delete Shift:=xlShiftUp  

End Sub  

We have added Shift:=xlShiftUp for the cells below to move up after deleting the 5th row.

The result:

Deleting multiple rows at once

Let's take a look at the code for deleting multiple rows:

Sub example3()  

Worksheets("Sheet1").Rows("4:6").Delete  

End Sub  

Code explanation:

• Worksheets("Sheet1") - indicates the worksheets name.
• Rows("4:6") - this indicates the specific rows to be deleted.
• Delete - this indicates the function to be used.

Here's a screenshot of the result:

Let's take a look at another example:

Code:

Sub example4()  

Worksheets("Example2").Rows("2:4").Delete  

End Sub  

Code explanation:

• Worksheets("Example2") - this refers to the worksheet's name. This is important if you have multiple worksheets opened.
• Rows("2:4") - this refers to the rows we want to delete. Starting from row 2 up to row 4.
• Delete - this defines as the function or method we are about to instruct VBA to perform on those rows.

Let's take a look at the result after running the code:

Deleting an entire rows

Code:

Sub example5()  

Dim WRKSheet As Worksheet  
Set WRKSheet = ThisWorkbook.Worksheets("Example2")  
WRKSheet.Activate  

On Error Resume Next  
WRKSheet.ShowAllData  

On Error GoTo 0  

WRKSheet.Range("A2:D100").AutoFilter field:=4, Criteria1:=""  

Application.DisplayAlerts = False  
WRKSheet.Range("A2:D100").SpecialCells(xlCellTypeVisible).Delete  
Application.DisplayAlerts = True  

On Error Resume Next  
WRKSheet.ShowAllData  
On Error GoTo 0  


End Sub  

Code explanation:

• *** Dim WRKSheet As Worksheet*** - this is our integer. WRKSheet refers to worksheet.
• Set WRKSheet = ThisWorkbook.Worksheets("Example2")
  WRKSheet.Activate - this refers to the active worksheet's name.
• WRKSheet.Range("A2:D100").SpecialCells(xlCellTypeVisible).Delete - in this part of the code, this is referring to the range we wanted to be deleted.

Note: a pop-up warning can also show if we have set all the Application.DisplayAlerts into true.

And the result after running the code:

Note:

• Using a single cells we can delete a single row
• By using range of cells we can delete multiple rows at once.

Conclusion

We have demonstrated a few examples of deleting rows in Excel using VBA. We hope you can use what you've learned to create cleaner and more effective worksheets for yourself.