Excel String Concatenation
Concatenation of Strings is done by the two concatenate methods provided to us by excel which is the & operator and concatenate inbuilt function, for example, we use =”Anand”&”Singh” in a cell will give us AnandSingh as a result and similarly we use =Concatenate (“Anand”,”Singh”) will give the same result as above.
Syntax
The syntax is very easy to understand.
- Text1 is nothing but what is the first string we need to concatenate in excel,
- Text2 is what is the second string we need to concatenate with Text1.
Like this, we can combine 255 values together.
Examples
Example #1 – Basic Example of Concatenating Values into One
For example, in cell A1 I have “Good,” and in cell A2, I have “Morning.”
In cell A4, we need to combine these two and create full sentences as “Good Morning.”
- Open concatenate formula in cell A4.
- Select cell A1 as the first Text1.
- As the second argument (Text2), select cell A2.
- We have only two values to combine. So close the bracket and hit the enter key.
Oh, hold on.
We lack one thing here, i.e., text separator. After the first value, we need a “space” character to separate the two words.
In the above, we have selected two values, so the concatenate function combined these two values together. So while applying the formula after selecting the Text1, we need to insert space character as the second value to be concatenated before selecting Text2. - After selecting Text1 in the Text2 argument, we need to supply the space character in double-quotes as”. “
- Once the space character is inserted we will get the result as follows.
Example #2 – Use the Ampersand (&) Symbol as the Alternative
Why do you want to use the CONCATENATE function where we can use AMPERSAND (&) symbol as an alternative?
You can use just an ampersand symbol to concatenate values. For the same example of combining “Good Morning,” we can use the formula below.
After each value, we need to put the ampersand (&) symbol. This is the most commonly used method to concatenate values in excel. CONCATENATE formula is not popular among excel users thanks to the ampersand symbol.
Example #3 – CONCATENATE Cell Values with Manual Values
We can enter our own values with cell values as well, much like inserting space characters. For example, look at the below data set.
We have a zone-wise sales value here. In the sentence column, we need to create a sentence like this –
“Total Sale of East Zone is 1500″
In the above sentence, we have only two values available with cells, i.e., bold values—remaining values we need to add as our own.
Put an equal sign in cell C2 to start the concatenation. As part of our sentence, our first value to be concatenated is “Total Sale of “(including space after).
The next value is our cell referenceCell ReferenceCell reference in excel is referring the other cells to a cell to use its values or properties. For instance, if we have data in cell A2 and want to use that in cell A1, use =A2 in cell A1, and this will copy the A2 value in A1.read more.
The third sentence to be concatenated is “Zone is “.
And the final value is cell reference.
Press the Enter key to get the answer.
Drag the formula to get the concatenate values in other cells as well.
Example #4 – CONCATENATE Date Values
Now, look at one more example of concatenating date values. Below is the data.
We need to combine these two values with our own sentences. Below is the sample of the same.
“Ramu Joined on 12-Jan-2018″.
Open equal sign in cell C2 and select A2 cells.
Next is our own sentence, so enter the text in double-quotes.
The final cell is to concatenate is Date, so select B2 cell.
Press Enter Key.
Oh, hang on!!!! We were supposed to get 12-Jan-2018; instead, we got 43112.
This is the situation everybody faces whoever has learned the basic level of concatenation. When we are concatenating Date, Time, and Numbers with Formatting, we need to apply the formatting with the TEXT function in excel. So, while selecting the DATE cell, select the TEXT function.
Mention the format as “DD-MMM-YYYY.”
Press the Enter key to get the answer.
The reason why we need to apply the TEXT function to the given format as a date because of excel stores date & time as serial numbers. Whenever we combine, we need to give formatting to them.
Drag the formula to get the concatenate values in other cells as well.
Recommended Articles
This has been a guide to Concatenate Strings in Excel. Here we discuss how to concatenate strings using concatenate formula and various other methods along with examples and a downloadable excel template. You can learn more about excel functions from the following articles –
- How to do the Opposite of Concatenate in Excel?
- Excel CONCATENATE Formula
- Concatenate Columns in Excel
- Concatenate Strings in VBA
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