Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Excel versions: 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. If you are using a later version (Excel 2007 or later), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for later versions of Excel, click here: Combining Multiple Rows in a Column.

Combining Multiple Rows in a Column

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated August 3, 2021)
This tip applies to Excel 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003


2

Bonnie described a common problem that occurs when importing a file into Excel. The file being imported is a scanned text file, and the import goes just fine, with one small glitch: in one column where there was wrapped text in the original document, the text now occupies several rows in the worksheet. Bonnie is looking for a way to combine those rows back into a single cell in that column.

There are a couple of ways this can be done. If you don't have to do this too often, a formulaic approach may be best. Just use the ampersand (&) to concatenate the contents of the rows you want to combine:

=C6 & " " & C7 & " " & C8 & " " & C9

The result is all the text combined into a single cell. You can copy this result to the Clipboard, and then use Paste Special to put it into the final cell where you need it. Finally you can delete the original multiple rows that are no longer needed.

If you need to perform this type of concatenation more than a few times, a simple macro may help:

Sub Combine()
    Dim J As Integer

    If Selection.Cells.Count > 1 Then
        For J = 2 To Selection.Cells.Count
            Selection.Cells(1).Value = _
              Selection.Cells(1).Value & " " & _
              Selection.Cells(J).Value
            Selection.Cells(J).Clear
        Next J
    End If
End Sub

To use this macro, select the cells you want to concatenate and then run the macro. The contents of all the cells are combined into the first cell in the selection, then whatever is in the other cells is cleared. The macro doesn't delete any rows; that is left for you to do. It does, however, combine the contents quickly—even more quickly if you assign a shortcut key to the macro.

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 (2417) applies to Microsoft Excel 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. You can find a version of this tip for the ribbon interface of Excel (Excel 2007 and later) here: Combining Multiple Rows in a Column.

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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What is five minus 3?

2017-01-28 15:32:25

Thomas Papavasiliou

An easy approach is to make your column width large enough, select the cells you want to concatenate and use the built-in command "Justify". It is located in Home tab, Editing group, Fill (click the small triangle) and the Justify appears.

I don't know the first version of excel where this function appeared but it certainly exists in version 2013 and later.

A possible drawback, or an advantage, is that this function adds a space at the end of each content of the selected cells on the concatenated result.

Numbers and formulas are not processed.

Make sure that the column width is large enough to accommodate your selection.


2017-01-28 06:05:39

Ray Austin

If, when you import, you paste into the editing bar and not the cell, then the info stays in just that 1 cell.
So could there be a macro to do that, so it all happens in 1 go ?


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