Excel Find and Replace for Single Quotes

To find or replace a single quote in Excel for Microsoft 365 on Windows, press Ctrl+H, type the straight apostrophe character (‘) in Find what, enter the replacement in Replace with, and choose Replace or Replace All. A single quote is not a special character in Excel’s Find and Replace box, so you can enter it directly.

What Excel means by a single quote

A single quote is the apostrophe-shaped mark: ‘ (also called a straight apostrophe). It is different from a double quotation mark: “, and from a curly apostrophe: ’. The difference matters because Excel searches for the exact character you enter. If your cells contain curly apostrophes copied from a document or website, searching for a straight apostrophe will not find them.

In a cell’s text, an apostrophe might be punctuation, part of a name, or a mark used in a code. For example, you might have values such as O'Brien, students' files, or item 'A'. Find and Replace can locate the apostrophe within those values and replace it, remove it, or replace it with another character.

There is also a separate Excel feature that can make an apostrophe appear to be associated with a cell. Typing an apostrophe before a value, as in '0042, tells Excel to treat the entry as text; that leading apostrophe is a text-entry prefix rather than an ordinary character in the cell’s value. Find and Replace is for characters in cell content, so it generally will not remove that prefix. The distinction is important when a search seems to miss an apostrophe you can see in the formula bar or when a number is being kept as text.

Find or replace a quote step by step

Use the Replace dialog when you want to search the current worksheet or workbook and optionally make changes. On Windows in Excel for Microsoft 365, the keyboard shortcut is Ctrl+H. You can also open it from Home > Find & Select > Replace.

Open the worksheet you want to search. If you want to limit the operation to a particular block, select that range first.
Press Ctrl+H, or use Home > Find & Select > Replace.
In Find what, enter the apostrophe character you want to locate. To find a straight single quote, type ‘. To find a curly apostrophe, copy and paste ’ instead.
In Replace with, enter the new character or text. Leave this box empty if you intend to remove the apostrophe.
Choose Find Next to inspect matches one at a time, Replace to change the selected match, or Replace All to change every match in the search scope.

On Mac, open Find and Replace from the Home tab or the Edit menu; the exact menu arrangement can vary by Excel version. The Windows Ctrl+H shortcut is not the Mac shortcut, so use the visible Replace command if you are unsure. On either platform, inspect the dialog’s options before making a workbook-wide change.

For a search without changing anything, use Ctrl+F on Windows to open Find, enter the character, and choose Find Next or Find All. Find All displays a list of matching cells when matches are found, which can help you review where the apostrophe occurs before deciding whether replacement is appropriate.

Choose the right search scope and options

Find and Replace has options that determine where Excel looks and what counts as a match. They are useful safeguards, especially when the same mark appears in both data and formulas. Expand the dialog’s Options area if the settings are not visible. Check these items before using Replace All:

Within: Choose Sheet to search the active worksheet, or Workbook to search across worksheets. A workbook-wide operation can affect cells you have not reviewed, so use it only when that is what you intend.
Look in: Choose whether Excel searches formulas or displayed values. Searching formulas can find characters in formula text, including sheet-name syntax; searching values is usually more appropriate when you are cleaning ordinary cell contents.
Match case: This setting concerns letter case, not whether an apostrophe is straight or curly. It does not make two different apostrophe characters equivalent.
Match entire cell contents: Leave this off to find an apostrophe inside a longer value, such as O'Brien. Turn it on only when the entire cell should consist of the search text.

The Find dialog remembers some settings from earlier searches. If a search unexpectedly returns no results, check the scope and options rather than assuming Excel cannot search for an apostrophe. Also check whether the relevant cells are on another sheet, or whether the data contains a curly mark instead of the straight character you typed.

Use examples to decide what to replace

The right replacement depends on the purpose of the text. Consider a list of names where O'Brien should remain a correctly spelled name. Removing every apostrophe would change it to OBrien, which may be undesirable. By contrast, a data-import task might require removing apostrophes from codes, or replacing them with a consistent delimiter. Review representative matches before applying a broad rule.

Remove the mark: Enter ‘ in Find what and leave Replace with empty. For example, dept'04 becomes dept04.
Standardize punctuation: Search for a curly apostrophe (’) and replace it with a straight apostrophe (‘). This can make text consistent for later matching or exporting.
Change punctuation to a separator: Replace an apostrophe with a hyphen or space only if that transformation suits the data. For example, team'west could become team-west.
Keep the apostrophe: If it is part of a person’s name or meaningful text, use Find to inspect occurrences rather than replacing them.

Replace All changes each match in the chosen scope at once. Before using it on important data, consider saving a copy of the workbook or testing the replacement on a selected sample range. If the result is wrong, Undo (Ctrl+Z on Windows or Command+Z on Mac) will usually reverse a recent replacement, but it is safer not to rely on undo as the only backup for a complex editing session.

Single quotes in formulas and sheet names

Apostrophes can be meaningful formula syntax, so searching formulas needs extra care. Excel uses single quotes around worksheet names when a reference needs them, such as when a sheet name contains spaces. A reference to a sheet named O'Brien Data can appear in a formula with the apostrophe inside the sheet name doubled, for example ='O''Brien Data'!A1. The outer marks delimit the sheet name, while the doubled mark represents the apostrophe in that name.

If you search formulas and replace apostrophes broadly, you could alter references and cause formulas to stop working or point to an invalid sheet name. The same caution applies to a search for text that appears inside formula strings. When the goal is to clean imported text, use Look in: Values where appropriate, and restrict the search to the data range rather than the entire workbook. If you are unsure whether a match is data or formula syntax, use Find Next to inspect it instead of choosing Replace All.

Why a search may not find the mark

Several common issues explain an empty result. Start by checking the exact character, then verify the search scope and settings. A visually similar mark is not necessarily the same character to Excel.

Straight versus curly: ‘ and ’ are different characters. Copy the mark from a cell and paste it into Find what, or search for each type separately.
The mark is a text prefix: A leading apostrophe used to force text entry is not ordinary cell content. Find and Replace does not act as a general tool for removing that prefix.
The wrong scope is selected: The search may be limited to the active sheet or selected range while the matching cell is elsewhere.
The wrong Look in setting is active: A character visible in a calculated result may not occur in the formula itself, or a character in the formula may not be part of the displayed value.
Match entire cell contents is on: A search for just an apostrophe will not match a cell containing a longer string when this option is enabled.
The cell is not ordinary text: A displayed result can come from a formula, formatting, or a text prefix. Identify what the cell actually contains before choosing a cleanup method.

For a leading apostrophe used to store a number as text, do not automatically convert the data to numbers. Values such as postal codes, account identifiers, and product codes may need to preserve leading zeros. If conversion is genuinely intended, make a copy and use an appropriate conversion method, such as Data > Text to Columns, after checking the expected result. Replacing punctuation inside text and converting text-formatted numbers are different tasks.

Find and Replace versus formulas or manual editing

Find and Replace is convenient for a one-time cleanup, a consistent punctuation change, or a quick audit across a range. It edits cell contents directly, which is useful when the corrected text should become the stored value. It is less suitable when the transformation must update automatically as new data arrives, or when only some apostrophes should change according to a rule.

For a small number of cells, editing each value can be safer because you can judge the context. For a repeatable data-cleaning process, Power Query or a formula-based workflow may be more appropriate, depending on the source and the desired output. Those methods require their own setup and should be tested on a copy; they are not necessary just to replace a literal apostrophe in a few cells.

Excel’s wildcard characters are a separate consideration. The asterisk (*) and question mark (?) can represent patterns in searches, but the single quote is not a wildcard and does not need an escape character in Find and Replace. If you are searching for a wildcard character itself, Excel uses a tilde to treat it literally; that special handling is not needed for an apostrophe.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I remove all single quotes in Excel?
Press Ctrl+H on Windows, enter ‘ in Find what, leave Replace with blank, check the scope and Look in setting, and choose Replace All. Review the affected cells first if the workbook contains names, formulas, or sheet references.

Can I find an apostrophe in Excel without replacing it?
Yes. Use Ctrl+F on Windows, type the apostrophe, and choose Find Next or Find All. Find locates matches without changing cell contents.

Why does Excel not find the apostrophe I can see?
It may be a curly apostrophe instead of a straight one, a text-entry prefix rather than cell content, or outside the active search scope. Check the character itself, the selected sheet or range, and the dialog’s options.

How do I replace curly apostrophes with straight ones?
Copy a curly apostrophe from a cell and paste it into Find what, then enter a straight apostrophe in Replace with. Use Find Next first to confirm that the search is finding the intended characters.

Does a single quote need to be escaped in Excel Find and Replace?
No. Enter the apostrophe directly in Find what. Tilde escaping is relevant to wildcard characters such as * and ?, not to a single quote.

Will Replace All change apostrophes in formulas?
It can if the search is set to look in formulas and the formula text contains a matching apostrophe. Because apostrophes can delimit worksheet names in references, inspect the search settings and avoid broad formula searches unless you intend to edit formula syntax.

Try it: the Date Difference Calculator: days, months, years and weekdays between two dates, with the DATEDIF formulas.

More in How-to basics

Sources: Function behaviour and menu paths: Microsoft Support documentation for Excel. Method & sources

Spotted an error in this guide? Let us know.