Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Excel versions: 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and 2021. 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: Using the CONCATENATE Worksheet Function.
Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated September 4, 2021)
This tip applies to Excel 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and 2021
Excel provides a function called CONCATENATE which can be used to combine the contents of several cells, or even to combine cell contents with other text. For instance, let's say you wanted to add together the contents of cells A3 and B3, separate them by a space, and have the result appear in cell C3. All you need to do is put the following formula in cell C3:
=CONCATENATE(A3," ",B3)
Primarily, the CONCATENATE function is used for compatibility with other (older) spreadsheet programs. You can just as easily use the ampersand (&) operator to combine text values using a formula. For instance, the following is equivalent to the example of CONCATENATE shown above:
=A3 & " " & B3
ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (9933) applies to Microsoft Excel 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and 2021. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Excel here: Using the CONCATENATE Worksheet Function.
Create Custom Apps with VBA! Discover how to extend the capabilities of Office 365 applications with VBA programming. Written in clear terms and understandable language, the book includes systematic tutorials and contains both intermediate and advanced content for experienced VB developers. Designed to be comprehensive, the book addresses not just one Office application, but the entire Office suite. Check out Mastering VBA for Microsoft Office 365 today!
Some of the newer functions in Excel can return quite a bit of information. If you want to limit what is returned, then ...
Discover MoreIf you need to determine the date of the last day in a month, it's hard to beat the flexibility of the EOMONTH function. ...
Discover MoreNeed to figure out if a particular cell contains text? You can use the ISTEXT function to easily return this bit of trivia.
Discover MoreFREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in ExcelTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."
2021-09-08 07:40:26
RKeev
Power Query Text.Join is another way if the task is a more cyclic occurrence.
2021-09-04 06:37:14
Andy
The newer =CONCAT and =TEXTJOIN are also worth looking at. They allow a range of cells to be joined without specifying each cell separately. =TEXTJOIN also allows for a delimiter to be specified.
2021-09-04 06:20:53
Felix A. Keller
RE. Instead of CONCATENATE
It might be worth mentioning that no spaces are actually required. The formula =A2&” “&B2 works as well as
=A2 & “ “ & B2; i.e. the number of blanks before or after the ampersand do not matter.
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 © 2026 Sharon Parq Associates, Inc.
Please Note:
This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Excel versions: 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and 2021. 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