CLEAN

Supported, behaves as documented

Category: Text · Last tested 2026-09-01

Real compatibility results for the CLEAN function: executed in Excel for the web, Google Sheets and LibreOffice Calc, with desktop Excel behavior from Microsoft’s official documentation (we do not run desktop Excel — Excel for the web is a different application and is executed separately). Syntax and links to that documentation are below.

Support matrix

Engine	Documented	Live-tested	Verdict
Excel (desktop)	Yes	No — documented only	n/a
Excel for the web	—	Yes (recalc, 2026-09-01)	Supported, behaves as documented
Google Sheets	Yes	Yes (Drive import, 2026-08-29)	Supported, behaves as documented
LibreOffice Calc	Yes	Yes (25.8.7.3, 2026-07-29)	Supported, behaves as documented

LibreOffice version history

We executed the same test cases under each LibreOffice release to show exactly when CLEAN’s support changed — not documentation claims, real results.

LibreOffice version	Verdict	Tested
24.2.0.3	Supported, behaves as documented	2026-08-29
24.8.7.2	Supported, behaves as documented	2026-08-29
25.2.0.3	Supported, behaves as documented	2026-08-29
25.8.7.3	Supported, behaves as documented	2026-07-29

Executed test cases

Excel for the web (executed 2026-09-01 via OneDrive recalculation)

These values come from Excel for the web, not from desktop Excel. They are two different implementations of the calculation engine, and this run measured only the web one: the corpus was uploaded to OneDrive as .xlsx, recalculated by Excel for the web on open, and downloaded again for readback. Excel for the web is a rolling service with no pinnable version, so the run is identified by its date. Where a value here disagrees with the Expected column — which is Microsoft’s documentation of the desktop product — we cannot tell you whether the web engine diverges from the desktop one or the documentation is wrong about both, because we do not run desktop Excel.

Formula	Description	Result	Expected	Verdict
=CLEAN("Hello"&CHAR(7)&"World")	CHAR(7) (BEL, a non-printable 7-bit ASCII control character) is stripped out	HelloWorld	HelloWorld	Matched
=CLEAN(CHAR(9)&"Hello")	CLEAN removes CHAR(9) (tab) because it's one of the first 32 non-printable ASCII codes -- contrast with TRIM, which leaves tabs completely untouched since TRIM only targets the space character (32), not control characters	Hello	Hello Provenance Source: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/clean-function-26f3d7c5-475f-4a9c-90e5-4b8ba987ba41 - CLEAN "removes nonprintable characters from ASCII codes 0 through 31"; its own documented example uses CHAR(9)&"Monthly report"&CHAR(10) -> "Monthly report"	Matched
=CLEAN(" Hello ")	Regular space characters (code 32) are left alone by CLEAN -- only non-printable control characters (codes 0-31) are removed	Hello	Hello	Matched
=CLEAN("Hello")	Text with no non-printable characters passes through unchanged	Hello	Hello	Matched

Google Sheets (executed 2026-08-29 via Drive import)

Google Sheets is a rolling service with no pinnable version, so this run is identified by its date. The corpus was imported to Drive as .xlsx, recalculated by Sheets, and exported back for readback.

Formula	Description	Result	Expected	Verdict
=CLEAN("Hello"&CHAR(7)&"World")	CHAR(7) (BEL, a non-printable 7-bit ASCII control character) is stripped out	HelloWorld	HelloWorld	Matched
=CLEAN(CHAR(9)&"Hello")	CLEAN removes CHAR(9) (tab) because it's one of the first 32 non-printable ASCII codes -- contrast with TRIM, which leaves tabs completely untouched since TRIM only targets the space character (32), not control characters	Hello	Hello Provenance Source: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/clean-function-26f3d7c5-475f-4a9c-90e5-4b8ba987ba41 - CLEAN "removes nonprintable characters from ASCII codes 0 through 31"; its own documented example uses CHAR(9)&"Monthly report"&CHAR(10) -> "Monthly report"	Matched
=CLEAN(" Hello ")	Regular space characters (code 32) are left alone by CLEAN -- only non-printable control characters (codes 0-31) are removed	Hello	Hello	Matched
=CLEAN("Hello")	Text with no non-printable characters passes through unchanged	Hello	Hello	Matched

LibreOffice Calc 25.8.7.3 (tested 2026-07-29)

Formula	Description	Result	Expected	Verdict
=CLEAN("Hello"&CHAR(7)&"World")	CHAR(7) (BEL, a non-printable 7-bit ASCII control character) is stripped out	HelloWorld	HelloWorld	Matched
=CLEAN(CHAR(9)&"Hello")	CLEAN removes CHAR(9) (tab) because it's one of the first 32 non-printable ASCII codes -- contrast with TRIM, which leaves tabs completely untouched since TRIM only targets the space character (32), not control characters	Hello	Hello Provenance Source: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/clean-function-26f3d7c5-475f-4a9c-90e5-4b8ba987ba41 - CLEAN "removes nonprintable characters from ASCII codes 0 through 31"; its own documented example uses CHAR(9)&"Monthly report"&CHAR(10) -> "Monthly report"	Matched
=CLEAN(" Hello ")	Regular space characters (code 32) are left alone by CLEAN -- only non-printable control characters (codes 0-31) are removed	Hello	Hello	Matched
=CLEAN("Hello")	Text with no non-printable characters passes through unchanged	Hello	Hello	Matched

Docs & syntax

Excel (desktop): official documentation
Google Sheets: official documentation
LibreOffice Calc: official documentation

Where CLEAN behaves differently

CHAR(0) and UNICHAR(0): Excel #VALUE! vs a NUL character in LibreOffice
Excel documents CHAR(0) and UNICHAR(0) as #VALUE!. LibreOffice Calc returns a NUL control character instead — the value our harness read back as the literal text _x0000_.
TRIM strips tabs and line breaks in Google Sheets but keeps them in Excel and LibreOffice
Executed evidence: =TRIM(CHAR(9)&"Hello") keeps the tab in Excel for the web and in all four LibreOffice builds, but Google Sheets strips it (and line feeds too). Non-breaking spaces survive TRIM everywhere. The portable fix, with dates and per-engine provenance.

Compared against other functions

TRIM vs CLEAN: the import-cleanup pair (and what both miss)