The CONCATENATE function accepts multiple arguments called text1, text2, text3, etc. up to 30 total. Values may be supplied as cell references, and hard-coded text strings. Only the first argument is required, and values are concatenated in the order they appear. For example, to concatenate the value of A1 and B1, separated by a space, you can use CONCATENATE like this: The result of this formula is the same as using the concatenation operator (&) manually like this: The ampersand character (&) is an alternative to CONCATENATE. The result is the same, but the ampersand is more flexible, and creates formulas that are shorter and (arguably) easier to read.
Number formatting
When concatenating numeric values like dates, times, percentages, etc., number formatting will be lost. For example, with the date 1-Jul-2021 in cell A1, the date reverts to a serial number during concatenation: To apply formatting during concatenation use the TEXT function : The CONCATENATE function will not handle ranges: To concatenate values in ranges, see the CONCAT function. To concatenate many values with a common delimiter, see the TEXTJOIN function. TEXTJOIN can do everything CONCAT can do, but can also accept a delimiter and optionally ignore empty values.
Notes
CONCATENATE can join up to 30 text items together. Text items can be text strings, numbers, or cell references that refer to one cell. Numbers are converted to text when joined. If you need to specify a number format for a number being joined, see the TEXT function. The ampersand character (&) is an alternative to CONCATENATE. The result is the same, but the ampersand is more flexible, and creates formulas that are shorter and (arguably) easier to read.
Dave Bruns
Hi - I’m Dave Bruns, and I run Exceljet with my wife, Lisa. Our goal is to help you work faster in Excel. We create short videos, and clear examples of formulas, functions, pivot tables, conditional formatting, and charts.
