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Clean a product spreadsheet without losing SKU zeros
Remove blank rows and exact duplicates while preserving leading-zero SKUs and conflicting product prices.
Quick answer
Cleaning a product table is not the same as merging products. products-source.csv has four non-empty product records, one empty record and an empty fourth column. It deliberately includes a whitespace variation, an exact duplicate after trimming and two different prices for SKU 000123.
Step by step
Open the sample in Spreadsheet cleanup. Enable trim cells, remove empty rows, remove empty columns and remove duplicate rows, then clean. Review the preview before exporting CSV or XLSX. The result has three data records plus the header, and three columns. The on-page row total includes the header, so a displayed count of 4 is expected, not an extra product.
Common mistakes
Trimming also collapses repeated spaces inside text: avoid it when those spaces matter. Removing an empty column only works if its header is also empty. Exact-row deduplication must keep the 12.50 and 13.00 records separate; sharing an SKU does not authorize a price decision. The tool handles cell values, not a faithful preservation of workbook formatting, macros or formulas.
Completion check
Reopen the exported file and check SKU 000123 as text, the Café accent, both prices and all three column names. CSV has no cell-type information; a spreadsheet application may drop zeros on double-click, so import that column as text or use the XLSX reference. Compare the cleaned download to your output, preserve the original, and resolve conflicting prices with a business rule outside automatic deduplication.
Make the right call
Keep formatting cleanup separate from business decisions
The sample contains a blank row, a blank column, a spacing variation and two prices for one SKU. It is designed to show why a cleaner should make the table easier to review without choosing which price is commercially correct.
| Check | Example or action | How to judge the result |
|---|---|---|
| Spaces and empty cells | Trim cells and remove truly empty rows and columns. | Trimming also collapses repeated internal spaces here. Leave it off when those spaces carry meaning; a named but empty column is not wholly empty. |
| An exact row repeats after trimming | Remove the duplicate and compare the preview with products-clean.csv. | Expect three data rows plus a header, three columns. The on-page row count includes that header. |
| SKU 000123 has prices 12.50 and 13.00 | Retain both rows and investigate their source or effective date. | Do not keep whichever happens to sort first. Import SKU columns as text in the receiving spreadsheet so zeros survive. |
Worked example
Boundarysline sample materials use fictional data. Download them to follow the steps; they are not real customer records or certified outputs.
| products-source.csv | 4 → 3 |
|---|---|
| products-clean.csv | 3 × 3 |
| 000123 | 12.50 / 13.00 |