CONCAT, CONCATENATE and & functions in Excel

CONCAT joins pieces of text into one; the & sign does the same between two values.

Joining text is one of the commonest jobs in a spreadsheet: first name and surname, a code built from several parts, a sentence that includes a total. Excel offers a sign and two functions for it, and a third function, TEXTJOIN, for joining with a separator.

Syntax

=CONCAT(text1, [text2], ...)

=CONCATENATE(text1, [text2], ...)

=text1 & text2

Argument	What it is
`text1, text2, ...`	The pieces to join: text, numbers, cells or, for CONCAT, ranges.

Examples

Each result below is what Excel itself showed for the formula on the sample sheet.

Sample sheet: A small price list with item codes. The table is sorted by code.

	A	B	C	D	E
1	Code	Item	Category	Price	Stock
2	A101	Basmati Rice 5 kg	Grocery	650	40
3	A102	Toor Dal 1 kg	Grocery	160	75
4	B201	Notebook	Stationery	60	300
5	B202	Ball Pen	Stationery	10	0
6	C301	LED Bulb	Electronics	110	200
7	C302	Power Bank	Electronics	1299	18
8	D401	Steel Bottle	Home	450	55

=B2&" ("&A2&")"
Result: Basmati Rice 5 kg (A101)
The & sign joins pieces. Text typed into the formula, such as the brackets, goes in quotation marks.
=CONCAT(B4," costs Rs ",D4)
Result: Notebook costs Rs 60
CONCAT does the same with commas between the pieces.
=CONCAT(A2:A4)
Result: A101A102B201
CONCAT accepts a range and joins every cell, with nothing between them.
=A2&"-"&C2
Result: A101-Grocery
A combined key from two columns, useful for lookups on two conditions.
="Total stock: "&SUM(E2:E8)
Result: Total stock: 688
A label and a calculation in one cell.
="Price: "&TEXT(D7,"#,##0.00")
Result: Price: 1,299.00
Numbers lose their formatting when joined. TEXT puts it back.
=CONCATENATE(B3,", ",C3)
Result: Toor Dal 1 kg, Grocery
The older function, which still works. It takes single cells only, not ranges.

Three ways to join

The & sign. =A2&" "&B2 joins A2, a space and B2. It is short, works in every version and is what most people use for two or three pieces.

CONCAT. Available in Excel 2019, 2021 and Microsoft 365. It takes a list of pieces and also whole ranges: =CONCAT(A2:A10) joins nine cells in one go.

CONCATENATE. The original function, kept so that old workbooks keep working. It accepts single cells and values only. =CONCATENATE(A2:A10) does not join the range. In new work use CONCAT or &.

Do not forget the spaces

None of these adds anything between the pieces. =A2&B2 gives "AshaVerma". You must supply the space, comma or dash yourself, as text in quotation marks: =A2&" "&B2.

When there are many pieces and the same separator between all of them, TEXTJOIN is the better tool. It also skips empty cells, which avoids results like "Asha, , Ludhiana".

Numbers and dates lose their format

A joined result is text. Any number in it appears in its raw stored form: no thousands separators, no fixed decimals, no currency sign. A date becomes its serial number, so ="Due on "&A2 shows something like "Due on 46027".

Wrap the number or date in TEXT with a format code:

="Due on "&TEXT(A2,"dd-mmm-yyyy")
="Amount: Rs "&TEXT(B2,"#,##0.00")
="Growth: "&TEXT(C2,"0.0%")

A key from two columns

Lookups need a single value to search for. When a row is identified by two things, such as a region and a product, join them into one helper column: =A2&"|"&B2. Then look up the joined value. Put a separator that cannot appear in the data between the parts, so that "AB" with "C" is not confused with "A" with "BC".

Line breaks inside a cell

CHAR(10) is a line break. =A2&CHAR(10)&B2 puts the two values on separate lines of one cell, provided Wrap Text is switched on for the cell. It is the way to build a postal address in one cell.

Splitting again

The reverse job, separating joined text, is done with LEFT, RIGHT, MID and FIND, or with Text to Columns on the Data tab.

Common mistakes

Missing quotation marks around typed text: =A2& - &B2 is an error. Write =A2&" - "&B2.
Expecting a space to appear by itself.
A date showing as a five-digit number.
#NAME? for CONCAT in Excel 2016 and earlier.
Trying to add up joined numbers. The result is text. Convert with VALUE if you must.

In Google Sheets

Google Sheets has CONCATENATE and the & sign, working as in Excel. Its CONCAT function is more limited: it joins exactly two values. For ranges, Sheets users turn to JOIN or TEXTJOIN.

Related functions

Every result on this page was calculated in Microsoft Excel (version 16.0, build 20326) on 12 November 2026, not typed by hand.

This is an independent help site. It is not connected with or approved by Microsoft. Excel and Microsoft 365 are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation, named here only to say which program a formula is for. The people and figures in the sample sheets are made up.