Formula Excel : Joining Text Strings

One of the more basic text manipulation actions you can perform is joining text strings together. In the example shown in Image 3-1, you create a full-name column by joining together first and last names.

Image 3-1: Joining first and last names.

How it works

This example illustrates the use of the ampersand (&) operator. The ampersand operator tells Excel to concatenate values with one another. As you can see in Image 3-1, you can join cell values with text of your own. In this example, you join the values in cells B3 and C3, separated by a space (created by entering a space in quotes).

Note : Excel also provides a CONCATENATE function that joins values without the need for the ampersand. In this example, you could enter =CONCATENATE(B3," ",C3). Frankly, it’s better to skip this function and simply use the ampersands. This function is more processing intensive and
requires using more keystrokes.

 

Categories: Formula