Concatenate Strings

To concatenate (join) strings in Excel, use the & operator, the CONCATENATE function, the CONCAT function or the TEXTJOIN function.

& Operator

Simply use the & operator to concatenate (join) strings in Excel.

1. For example, the formula below concatenates the string in cell A2 and the string in cell B2.

2. To insert a space, use double quotation marks with a space between them.

3. The formula below concatenates the string in cell B2, a comma and a space and the string in cell A2.

Concatenate

Instead of using the & operator, use the CONCATENATE function in Excel.

1. The CONCATENATE function below concatenates the string in cell A2 and the string in cell B2.

2. The CONCATENATE function below concatenates the string in cell A2, a space and the string in cell B2.

3. The CONCATENATE function below concatenates the string in cell B2, a comma and a space and the string in cell A2.

Concat

The CONCAT function in Excel 2016 produces the exact same result as the CONCATENATE function. Simply replace CONCATENATE with CONCAT in the formulas shown above.

1. The CONCAT function can also join a range of strings. If you don't need a delimiter (space, comma, dash, etc.) this can be useful.

TextJoin

The TEXTJOIN function in Excel 2016 joins a range of strings using a delimiter (first argument).

1. First, take a look at all the extra spaces in column E below when you drag the CONCAT function in cell E2 down to cell E11.

2. The beauty of the TEXTJOIN function in Excel is that it can ignore empty cells (if the second argument is set to TRUE).

More about Concatenation

When joining text and a number, use the TEXT function to format that number.

1. Without using the TEXT function this would be the result.

2. With the TEXT function.

Note: #,## is used to add comma's to large numbers. Use 0 to display the nearest integer value. Use 0.0 for one decimal place. Use 0.00 for two decimal places, etc. Visit our page about the TEXT function for many more examples.