About moving, copying, and pasting cell contents in Datasheet view
You can move or copy portions of a list to another location in the same list, or to another document. When you move a selection, the selection is removed from the list and is moved to the Clipboard. When you copy a selection, the selection remains in the list, and a copy is placed in the Clipboard. Pasting the contents of the Clipboard transfers it to the destination.
Moving or copying parts of a list
If the selected range includes cells that either cannot be left blank or are read-only, the move operation will fail. Columns with the following data types cannot be left blank, so they are not cleared as a result of a move operation: Checkbox and Calculated.
The following table lists the contents of the Clipboard following a move or copy operation.
| Move or copy... | Contents of the clipboard |
|---|---|
| Data or one or more cells (selection does not include entire rows or a column) | Cell contents are cleared or copied and placed in the Clipboard. |
| One or more rows | Selected rows will be deleted or copied and placed in the Clipboard. |
| A column (can only be copied, cannot be moved) | Selection will be placed in the Clipboard. |
| Total row | If moving, expression for the cells in the
Total row is set to None. The Total row is not affected by a copy operation.
Aggregate values are placed in the Clipboard. |
| Check box cell | Not cleared during a move operation.
Yes or No is placed in the Clipboard. |
| Calculated column | Not cleared during a move operation.
Calculated values are placed in the Clipboard. |
Pasting contents of the Clipboard into a
list
- Some or all of the destination cells are read-only
- Pasting the contents into the selected cells will make them fail the validation rules
- Attempting to paste data that does not match the data type of the destination cells
- Attempting to paste data into a calculated column
When you attempt to paste data of one type into a column of a different type, the list will try to convert the source data to match the type of the destination column. For example, if the source data is numeric, and the destination cells support text, source data will be converted to text and then placed in the destination cells. If the source data cannot be converted to match the destination cell type, the paste operation will fail.
The following table lists the result of different paste operations:
| Contents of the Clipboard | Attempting to paste contents to... | Result of the paste operation |
|---|---|---|
| A single cell | A range of cells | Contents copied to every cell in the selected range. |
| A range of cells | A single cell | Destination range expands to fit the entire contents of the Clipboard, where the selected cell becomes the top left cell of the destination range. |
| One or more rows or columns | First cell of a row or column | Destination range expands to fit the entire contents of the Clipboard, where the selected cell becomes the top left cell of the destination range. |
| One or more rows | A cell other than the first cell of a row | The paste operation fails. |
| One or more columns | A cell other than the first cell of a column | The paste operation succeeds, unless the destination range goes beyond the last row in the view, and the view includes required columns. Since the required columns in the new rows will be blank, new rows are not added, and you see a message indicating some rows were skipped. |
| A range of cells | A range of cells | If the dimensions match, the paste operation will succeed, otherwise, it will fail. |
| Cells in the Total row | Total row | Expression contained in the source cells will be placed in the destination cells. |
| Cells in the Total row | Anywhere other than the Total row | Aggregate values will be placed in the destination cells. |