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: Using the CONCATENATE Worksheet Function.
Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated December 30, 2023)
This tip applies to Excel 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003
Excel provides a function called CONCATENATE which can be used to combine the contents of several cells, or even to combine cell contents with other text. For instance, let's say you wanted to add together the contents of cells A3 and B3, separate them by a space, and have the result appear in cell C3. All you need to do is put the following formula in cell C3:
=CONCATENATE(A3," ",B3)
Primarily, the CONCATENATE function is used for compatibility with other spreadsheet programs. You can just as easily use the ampersand (&) operator to combine text values using a formula. For instance, the following is equivalent to the example of CONCATENATE shown above:
=A3 & " " & B3
ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (2433) 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: Using the CONCATENATE Worksheet Function.
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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:
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