Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Excel versions: 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and Excel in Microsoft 365. 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: Concatenating Ranges of Cells.

Concatenating Ranges of Cells

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated September 12, 2019)
This tip applies to Excel 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and Excel in Microsoft 365


3

Excel provides one workbook function and one operator that both have the same purpose—to combine strings into a longer string. The CONCATENATE function and the ampersand (&) operator have essentially the same purpose.

Many people use the ampersand operator in preference to the CONCATENATE function because it requires less typing, but CONCATENATE would become immensely more valuable if it would handle a range of cells. Unfortunately it does not, but you can create your own user-defined function that will concatenate every cell in a range very nicely. Consider the following macro:

Function Concat1(myRange As Range, Optional myDelimiter As String)
    Dim r As Range

    For Each r In myRange
        Concat1 = Concat1 & r & myDelimiter
    Next r
    If Len(myDelimiter) > 0 Then
        Concat1 = Left(Concat1, Len(Concat1) - Len(myDelimiter))
    End If
End Function

This function requires a range and provides for an optional delimiter. The last "If" statement removes the final trailing delimiter from the concatenated string. With the CONCAT1 function, cells can be added and deleted within the range, without the maintenance required by CONCATENATE or ampersand formulas. All you need to do is call the function in one of the following manners:

=CONCAT1(C8:E10)
=CONCAT1(C8:E10,"|")

The second method of calling the function uses the optional delimiter, which is inserted between each of the concatenated values from the range C8:E10. There is a problem with this, however: If a cell in that range is empty, then you can end up with two sequential delimiters. If you prefer to have only a single delimiter, then you need to make one small change to the function:

Function Concat2(myRange As Range, Optional myDelimiter As String)
    Dim r As Range

    For Each r In myRange
        If Len(r.Text) > 0 Then
            Concat2 = Concat2 & r & myDelimiter
        End If
    Next r
    If Len(myDelimiter) > 0 Then
        Concat2 = Left(Concat2, Len(Concat2) - Len(myDelimiter))
    End If
End Function

Note:

If you would like to know how to use the macros described on this page (or on any other page on the ExcelTips sites), I've prepared a special page that includes helpful information. Click here to open that special page in a new browser tab.

ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (11247) applies to Microsoft Excel 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and Excel in Microsoft 365. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Excel here: Concatenating Ranges of Cells.

Author Bio

Allen Wyatt

With more than 50 non-fiction books and numerous magazine articles to his credit, Allen Wyatt is an internationally recognized author. He is president of Sharon Parq Associates, a computer and publishing services company. ...

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Comments

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What is four less than 6?

2023-11-21 17:05:56

J. Woolley

My Excel Toolbox includes the following function to combine values, arrays, and/or cell ranges into a delimited text string:
=JoinAsText(Delimiter,IgnoreEmpty,Values,...)
This function matches Excel 2019's TEXTJOIN. If Delimiter is a null string (""), the result is the same as CONCAT. For more, see my 2023-11-17 comment here: https://excelribbon.tips.net/T008663_Pulling_Initial_Letters_from_a_String.html
Also, see https://sites.google.com/view/MyExcelToolbox/


2019-09-12 09:18:32

Chuck Trese

A slightly more concise version of concat2:
(Instead of removing the extra delimiter at the end, it only adds the delimiter when it is needed.)

Public Function concat2(myRange As Range, Optional myDelimiter As String)
Dim r As Range

For Each r In myRange
If Len(concat2) > 0 And Len(r.Text) > 0 Then concat2 = concat2 & myDelimiter
concat2 = concat2 & r
Next r
End Function


2016-02-05 08:10:44

Paul Rowell

I made a couple of changes to Concat2:

Function Concat2(myRange As Range, Optional myDelimiter As String) As String

Dim r As Range

For Each r In myRange
If Len(r.Text) > 0 Then
Concat2 = Concat2 & r & myDelimiter
End If
Next r
If Len(myDelimiter) > 0 And Len(Concat2) > 0 Then
Concat2 = Left(Concat2, Len(Concat2) - Len(myDelimiter))
End If
End Function


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