How to Use and the Function of Ctrl + E Excel

In this tutorial, you will learn how to use and the functions of Ctrl + E excel completely.

You can use the Ctrl +E shortcut to access the excel flash fill feature. What is flash fill and how to use it? See its detailed explanation in the next parts of this tutorial!

However, before we continue, note that you can only use the flash fill feature from excel 2013 version onwards. That means if you have excel 2010 or earlier excel versions, then you cannot use this feature yet.

Disclaimer: This post may contain affiliate links from which we earn commission from qualifying purchases/actions at no additional cost for you. Learn more

Want to work faster and easier in Excel? Install and use Excel add-ins! Read this article to know the best Excel add-ins to use according to us!

The Function of Ctrl + E Excel

We can use the Ctrl + E shortcut in excel to activate the flash fill feature in excel.

Flash fill is a great feature that can read our input pattern before implementing the pattern to produce other inputs. This feature is practical to use if you want to use the same input pattern to all your data fast.

Example of Usage and Result

Here is an implementation example of this Ctrl + E shortcut to activate the flash fill feature in excel.





See how the Ctrl + E shortcut works in the example? By using it, you can implement any kind of input pattern to all the data in a sequence you have easily!

In the example, we want to convert all the letters in the name column’s texts into capital letters. To do that, we can use the flash fill feature that we can access by using the Ctrl + E shortcut.

Capitalize the letters for one name in the column where we want to place all the names with capital letters. After that, just press Ctrl + E. All the names’ letters in the name column will be capitalized, following your input pattern earlier.

We don’t need to exemplify the input pattern we want to the Ctrl +E shortcut exclusively for the first data. We can do the input pattern to any data and flash fill will implement it to others for you.

This is as you can see in the example to create the email addresses from name data below.





Sometimes, flash fill can also do a wrong input pattern detection, as you can see in the example below.



If that happens, you can fix it by changing one of the inputs that flash fill gives. Other inputs produced by this feature will automatically be updated based on the input pattern you give in the fixing process.



So, if you want to input fast and your input has a pattern, don’t hesitate to use the Ctrl + E shortcut. By using it, you can save a lot of time when doing your data processing in excel.

Steps to Use Ctrl + E in Excel

To make you understand how to use the Ctrl + E shortcut in excel better, here are its step-by-step instructions.

1. Prepare the place where you want to put your flash fill results. This place must be beside the data which are related to your inputs
   
   
   
   
2. Do the input with the pattern you want to exemplify to flash fill. Do it for any of the related data you have
   
   
   
   
3. Press the Ctrl + E buttons simultaneously
4. Done! If there is something wrong with the inputs produced by flash fill, then fix one of them. After you do that, flash fill most probably will fix its other inputs, following the pattern of your fix.
   
   
   
   

Exercise

After learning how to use and the function of the Ctrl + E in excel, let’s do an exercise. This is so you can be better at using the buttons combination.

Download the exercise file and do all the instructions below.

Link to the exercise file:
Download here

Instructions

Do all the following instructions by using the Ctrl + E shortcut in your excel!

1. Sheet 1: Get the middle parts of those codes on the left to fill the empty column!
2. Sheet 2: Write dates from the day, month, and year numbers given in each of the table rows
3. Sheet 3: Rewrite the numbers by adding them with the rewriting of the numbers from behind (example: if the number is “123”, then change it to “123321”)

Additional Note

Besides using Ctrl + E, you can also access the flash fill feature through the “Home” or “Data” tab in excel. See the exact location of the feature button in each tab below.

Tab “Home”



Tab “Data”





Related tutorials you should learn too: