How to Transpose Data in Google Sheets

Here's how you change direction of your data in Google Spreadsheets, commonly called Google Sheets.

Working with numbers can be infuriating, and not knowing how to do something simple can sometimes take up several hours of trial and error — even though it's a common task in the end.

One of those tasks is to transpose values in Google Sheets or Microsoft Excel. Fortunately it's very easy to do; here's a step by step guide.

Transposing Data in Google Sheets
- Method 1: Using the Paste Special Menu
- Method 2: Using the Transpose Function
What does Transpose Mean?
- Example of Transposed Values

Transposing Data in Google Sheets

There are two different methods to transpose values in Google Sheets;

Using the Paste Special Menu
Using the Transpose Function

Both of these are easy to use, but the latter gives you a more dynamic approach and keeps the original values as they are.

Select the rows or columns you want to transpose and press Ctrl+C (cmd+C on a Mac) or choose Edit — Copy in the Google Sheets menu.

To transpose the copied rows or columns using the Paste Special Menu, simply right click in the cell where you want the transposed values to show up and select Paste Special — Paste transposed.

That's it — your values are not transposed in the new location.

Method 2: Using the Transpose Function

If you want a more dynamic solution, however, the Transpose Function is the way to do it. Simply navigate to where you want the transposed values to show up and type the following;

=TRANSPOSE(A1:C4)

Now press enter — and you're done.

You need to customize the A1:C4 cell range to reflect your own titles, values and their respective positions in your sheet, but you get the idea. It's important to include the title row if you want the titles to show up in your transposed values as well.

Google Sheets automatically recognizes the direction you want to transpose; if your values are horizontal the TRANSPOSE() function will transpose them to vertical, and the other way around, so there's no need to specify this manually.

What does Transpose Mean?

In the Excel and Google Sheets applications, transpose means that you flip the contents on its side; if you have columns with data going downwards, or you have rows with data going sideways, you can switch between them by transposing the values.