Row vs Column in Excel – What’s
the Difference?
-- By Sumit Bansal
While this may be a basic question for many Excel users, I have
been asked multiple times about the difference between rows and
columns in Excel.
While one obvious difference is the placement of the row versus
column in Excel, there is more to it.
In this article, I will cover the differences between rows and
columns in Excel (starting with the most basic difference and
then talking about some more nuanced aspects of it)
This Tutorial Covers:
Difference Between Row and Column in Excel
o The Placement of Rows and Columns in Excel
o Row and Columns have Different Header Labels
o Filters Can be Applied Only to Columns
o Sorting is More Common with Columns (but possible with Rows)
o VLOOKUP for Columns and HLOOKUP for Rows
o Selecting a Row vs. Selecting a Column
o Some Features Only Work with Columns (Flash Fill/ Text to Columns)
o Different Limits for Rows and Columns in Excel
Flipping Rows and Columns (Transposing the Data)
Difference Between Row and
Column in Excel
Let’s look at some basic differences between rows and columns
in Excel.
The Placement of Rows and Columns in
Excel
Let me first start with the most obvious one, the placement of
rows and columns in the worksheet in Excel.
An Excel worksheet is built using cells.
Cells that are aligned vertically are called a Column (as
shown below)
Cells that are aligned horizontally are called a Row (as
shown below)
Any cell in Excel would always be a part of one row and one
column.
For example, the cell below is present in column three and row
four.
This construct allows us to refer to each cell with its own cell
reference that would be unique to it.
Row and Columns have Different Header
Labels
If you have not noticed already, let me highlight it for you.
Every row has a row label which is a number. You can find this
row label at the extreme left of the row (as shown below).
In the above screenshot, I have highlighted row #2, where you
can see the number 2 as the row label.
This is useful as it allows us to identify any cell in this specific row
(as it would always have the row number as 2).
And when it comes to columns, instead of a number, they use a
letter/alphabet.
For example, in the screenshot below, I have highlighted the
second column where the column label is B.
Any cell which is in the second column would always have its
column labeled as B.
Since any cell in the worksheet can only have one row label and
one column label, this is what makes the cell address of each cell
unique.
For example, the cell reference of the cell highlighted in the
screenshot below is B2 (because it’s present in column B and row
#2)
Now that I have covered the basic difference between rows and
columns in Excel, let’s have a look at some more advanced
differences you should know about
Also read: Convert Columns to Rows in Excel
Filters Can be Applied Only to Columns
Whenever you apply filters in a data set in Excel, it would always
be applied to the column headers for that data set.
There is no way for you to apply filters to the row headers.
Below I have a data set where I have the sales of different
products in different months, and I’ve applied Data Filters to it.
As you can see, the filter is only applied to the month names
(which are the column headers), and not the product names
(which are the row headers)
But what if you want to filter your data based on the data in rows
and not in columns? In that case, a workaround is to transpose
your data, filter and extract what you want, and then transpose it
back
Sorting is More Common with Columns
(but possible with Rows)
While Excel allows you to sort your data based on columns as
well as rows, sorting is mostly done using columns.
This is why sorting based on columns is also the default setting
when you open the Sort dialog box in Excel (which can be done
by clicking on the Data tab and then clicking on the Sort icon)
When you sort your data based on the columns, the rows are
rearranged while the columns stay where they are.
Excel also allows you to sort your data based on the rows (it’s
called Sort Left to Right). But this is less commonly used, as most
of the time, the data is arranged in columns
VLOOKUP for Columns and HLOOKUP for
Rows
Based on how your data is arranged, Excel has different formulas
for rows and columns.
For example, if you have your data set in a column and you want
to use a lookup formula, you can use the VLOOKUP
function (which stands for vertical lookup), and if your data is
arranged in rows and you want to use a lookup formula, you can
use the HLOOKUP function (which stands for horizontal lookup)
Here are some other examples of functions that can be used
based on whether you want to use them on rows or columns:
ROW and COLUMN
ROWS and COLUMNS
VSTACK and HSTACK
Also read: Formula vs Function in Excel – What’s the Difference?
Selecting a Row vs. Selecting a Column
If you want to select an entire row in Excel, you need to click on
the row label (which is the number at the extreme left of the row).
You can also select multiple rows by holding the control key and
then clicking on the row labels.
You can also use the keyboard shortcut SHIFT + Spacebar to
select a row.
To select a column, you need to click on the column letter at the
top of the column (and you can also use the keyboard
shortcut Control + Spacebar)
Also read: How to Copy Column Widths in Excel (Shortcut)
Some Features Only Work with Columns
(Flash Fill/ Text to Columns)
Since most of the data is arranged in columns, some features are
specific to data in columns.
For example, the Text to Columns feature would only work by
splitting your data from one column to multiple columns (or
changing the data format in columns).
Similarly, Flash Fill would only work by identifying the patterns in
a column and would not work with data in rows
Different Limits for Rows and Columns in
Excel
As I have already mentioned multiple times in this article, most
Excel users work with data that is arranged in columns.
This often means that there is a need to have more rows as
compared to columns (as they usually are less number of
columns in the data set but more records in the rows).
And this is why there are fewer columns in Excel than rows.
Below are the number of rows and column in Excel that comes
with a Microsoft 365 subscription:
Total number of Rows – 1,048,576
Total number of Columns – 16,386 (till column XFD)
So the question arises, why not have the same number of
columns as there are rows?
That’s because having so many cells in a worksheet requires
resources of the system on which your Excel application is
running.
Keeping the number of columns less than the number of
rows allows excel to run fast and keep the file size small.
Now that I have covered the major differences between rows and
columns in Excel, below is a table that shows them in an easy-to-
compare table:
Rows Columns
A Column refers to cells arranged
A Row refers to cells arranged horizontally
vertically
There are a total of 1,048,576 rows in one There are a total of 16,386 columns in
worksheet in Excel one worksheet in Excel
Columns are labeled using letters
Rows are labeled using numbers (such as 1
(such as A for the first column and B
for the first row and 2 for the second row)
for the second column)
You can not apply filters to row headers You can apply filters to row headers
You can select a column by clicking
You can select a row by clicking on the row
on the column label (letter). You can
label (number). You can also use the
also use the shortcut Control +
shortcut Shift + Spacebar
Spacebar
Flash Fill and Text to Columns won’t work Flash Fill and Text to Columns will
for data in rows work for data in columns
Flipping Rows and Columns
(Transposing the Data)
In situations where you get your data that is in rows instead of
columns, you can feel limited, given that Excel is more optimized
for having tabular data in columns instead of rows.
One common scenario is when you want to create Pivot Tables.
To do that, you need to have your data in a specific format where
there can be multiple column headers, but the records in the rows
can only have one header (such as the dates).
So if you find yourself in a situation where your data is in rows,
and you want it in columns, you can use the transpose features in
Excel.
You can either use the inbuilt TRANSPOSE function or
the transpose functionality in Paste Special or open your data in
Power Query and then transpose and import it back into your
workbook.
In this tutorial, I tried to compare the differences between rows
and columns in Excel and also give you some practical examples
that can help further your knowledge.
