SQL data dump into excel will not allow cell width change

[HeyInKy]

I have an Excel sheet with over 5K rows of data that was generated from an SQL database. Column F is 54.86 in width, even though if reduced to the size of the longest text in that column, it would only be around 18. So that column is taking up tons of (unused) space on my worksheet, and I'd like to narrow it down.

Only when I do select column width 18 for the entire column, only the first (header) row changes, and the remaining 5K data rows remain at 56.86... overlapping columns G, H I and J - which are currently blank but I am planning to fill with formulas. I tried copying all the data into a new workbook and worksheet - still did it, and selecting just the data through F2:F5nnn and manually moving it to column K, and the formatting followed and column K became 56.86 width.

So I'm thinking there's some internal formatting rule here doing this - any help or ideas?

-HeyInKy

[HeyInKy]

Ah-ha!! Self-fixed!

FYI - the cells in col. F had extra spaces after the text, so I had to use =TRIM(SUBSTITUTE(F2,CHAR(160),CHAR(32))), copy all the way down in column K, and then copy col. K and paste the values only (not the TRIM formula) into col L, delete columns F and K and move the data back over.