3 Ways to Combine Cells in Excel: Ampersand, CONCAT and TEXTJOIN

Step-by-step

Three ways to join the contents of several cells into one, for example a first name, middle name and surname in C3:E3 into a full name in B3.

1. The ampersand (&)

In Excel, & works like glue between pieces:

=C3&D3&E3

That runs the words together, so glue a space in between. Text inside a formula always goes in quotation marks, including a space:

=C3&" "&D3&" "&E3

2. CONCAT

CONCAT (the modern CONCATENATE) takes a list of pieces separated by commas. To join a range without spaces:

=CONCAT(C5:E5)

To add spaces, give them as their own arguments:

=CONCAT(C5," ",D5," ",E5)

3. TEXTJOIN

TEXTJOIN has the separator built in. Its arguments are the delimiter, whether to ignore empty cells, and the cells to join:

=TEXTJOIN(" ",TRUE,C7:E7)

TRUE skips any empty cells, so you don’t get double spaces when a middle name is missing.

Which to use

For two or three cells, the ampersand is quick and works in every version of Excel. For a long list, TEXTJOIN is much simpler: one delimiter instead of typing &” “& between every cell, and it handles blanks for you.

Go further

My Excel Tips & Shortcuts: 100+ Powerful Hacks course collects a hundred time-saving techniques like this one.