Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Excel versions: 2007, 2010, and 2013. If you are using an earlier version (Excel 2003 or earlier), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for earlier versions of Excel, click here: Combining Cell Contents.
At the heart of Excel is the ability to add formulas to worksheets. You use these formulas to manipulate information stored in different cells. One of the ways you can manipulate information is to combine the contents of your cells. For instance, let's assume you have a list of last names in column A, a list of first names in column B, and a list of titles (Mr., Ms., Dr., etc.) in column C. If you wanted to derive a full name for these people, you could use the following formula:
=CONCATENATE(C4, " ", B4, " ", A4)
The result of such a formula is that Excel combines the values (the names and titles) from the specified cells and places spaces between them.
If I am remembering my spreadsheet history correctly, the CONCATENATE function was originally included in Excel for compatability with other spreadsheet programs—most notably Lotus 123. Personally, I prefer to use what I've always viewed as the native concatenation operator for Excel, which is the ampersand. Here's how you could write the same concatenation formula mentioned above:
=C4 & " " & B4 & " " & A4
The ampersand character (&) is used to indicate that Excel should "add" text together to create a new text value.
ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (9635) applies to Microsoft Excel 2007, 2010, and 2013. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Excel here: Combining Cell Contents.
Comprehensive VBA Guide Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) is the language used for writing macros in all Office programs. This complete guide shows both professionals and novices how to master VBA in order to customize the entire Office suite for their needs. Check out Mastering VBA for Office 2010 today!
Want to know how to move pieces of information contained in one cell into individual cells? This option exists if using ...
Discover MoreWhen working with data in Excel, you might want to figure out which rows of data represent duplicates of other rows. If ...
Discover MoreExcel is great at manipulating data, but sometimes it is difficult to figure out the best way to do the manipulation. ...
Discover MoreFREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in ExcelTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."
2022-01-15 19:43:06
John Mann
Just for interest sake the CONCATENATE funtion isn't listed in my version of Lotus 1-2-3 (release N9.8.0208.1200 Copyright 1991, 2002 - the last release).
The & for concatenating cell contents works, with minor syntax differences from Excel 2010.
2020-05-09 10:33:11
Ron Pineo
There is also the handy concat(A4:z4) function that can concatenate a range. Allows you to make very large strings that wouldn't normally fit in a cell.
2020-05-09 08:06:26
Alex B
If you have Office 2019, or Microsoft 365 you could use
=textjoin(" ",TRUE,C4,B4,A4)
Got a version of Excel that uses the ribbon interface (Excel 2007 or later)? This site is for you! If you use an earlier version of Excel, visit our ExcelTips site focusing on the menu interface.
FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in ExcelTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."
Copyright © 2025 Sharon Parq Associates, Inc.
Please Note:
This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Excel versions: 2007, 2010, and 2013. If you are using an earlier version (Excel 2003 or earlier), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for earlier versions of Excel, click here: 
Comments