Reviewed and fact-checked by Sayantoni Das

The word CONCATENATE means to join or combine. The CONCATENATE function in Excel is used to combine the text from different cells into one cell. This Excel tutorial will explain how to use the Excel CONCATENATE function with syntax and examples.

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Excel CONCATENATE Function

The Excel CONCATENATE function is used to join up to 30 text items and return the result as a text. 

The Excel Concatenate formula is as follows:

=CONCATENATE (text1, text2, [text3], ...)

How to Combine Data Using the CONCAT Function 

  1. Choose a cell for the combined data to be placed.
  2. Please type =CONCAT(.
  3. Choose the cell you would like to combine first.
  4. Add spaces, commas, or other text. Use quotation marks to separate the cells you are combining.
  5. Enter the formula within parenthesis.  =CONCAT(A2, " Family").

Concatenating the Values of Several Cells

The simple formula to CONCATENATE the values of two cells A2 and B2 are as follows:

=CONCATENATE(A2,B2) 

The values will be combined without any delimiters.

To separate the values with space, use “ “.

=CONCATENATE(A3, “ “, B3)

concat1

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Concatenating a Text String and a Cell Value

The Excel CONCATENATE function is not only limited to joining cell value. You can use the function to join a cell value and a string as well. For example:

=CONCATENATE(A2, " ", B2, " SIMPLILEARN")

concat2

Concatenating a Text String and Formula Calculated Value

You can also concatenate a text string and a formula calculated value. 

For example, you can use the following formula to return the current date:

=CONCATENATE("Today is ",TEXT(TODAY(), "dd-mmm-yy"))

concat3

How to Combine Data With the Ampersand Symbol (&)

Ampersand (&) calculation operators make it easy to join text items without requiring a function to be used. 
  1. Choose the cell where you want to place the combined data.
  2. Type an equal sign (=) in that cell.
  3. Select the first cell that you want to combine.
  4. Type the ampersand symbol (&).
  5. Enclose a space within quotation marks (" ").
  6. Select the next cell that you want to combine.
  7. Press the enter key.
  8. An example formula could be "=A2&" "&B2".

Remember to adapt the cell references (A2, B2) according to your specific data.

Important Points to Remember

You should follow some rules to ensure that the CONCATENATE function always delivers the correct result.

  • There should be at least one “text” argument in the CONCATENATE function for it to work.
  • If the CONCATENATE function's arguments are invalid, the formula returns a #VALUE! Error.
  • The result of the CONCATENATE function is always a text string, even when all the source values are numbers.

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Concatenate Cells With Space, Comma, and Other Characters

In the worksheet, you may require to join the values in a way that will include commas, spaces, or various punctuation marks. To do that, follow the syntax mentioned below.

Concatenating two cells with space:

=CONCATENATE(A2, “ “ ,B2)

Concatenating two cells with a comma:

=CONCATENATE(A3, “, ”, B3) 

Concatenating two cells with space:

=CONCATENATE(A4, “ - “, B4)

commas1-concatenate

Concatenate Columns in Excel

Concatenating the whole column at once is very easy. Just enter the formula in the first cell and then copy it down to the other cells by dragging the fill handle (the small square that appears at the lower right corner of the selected cells).

COLUMNS1

Conclusion

So, in this article, we discussed how to concatenate text in our Excel worksheet. We have seen several examples of the CONCATENATE function with different syntax.

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