Common Data Cleaning Functions

Learning Objectives:

Learning how to change capitalization in Excel.
Learning to clean data based on logical functions (True or False).
Understanding the TRIM Function in Excel.

Lower Function

This function is used to lowercase text in a cell. Changing the letter case of your cell values can be beneficial when there are case inconsistencies among the cell inputs or when preparing your dataset for case-sensitive usage.

It is typed =LOWER

Excel Lowercase example

TRIM Function

This function is used to remove irregular text spacing and keep single spaces between words.

It is typed =TRIM

Excel Trim example

XOR Function

This function returns TRUE or FALSE based on two or more conditions.

It is typed =XOR

=XOR([logical1], [logical2], ...)

The conditions are referred to as [logical1], [logical2], and so on. The conditions can check things like:

If a number is greater than another number >
If a number is smaller than another number <
If a number or text is equal to something =

For two conditions, you can think of the XOR function as: "either this or that, but not both"

Excel XOR example