How to Combine Text with CONCAT and the & Operator in Excel
Introduction
You have first names in one column and last names in another. Every report, email merge, and export needs them in a single cell. The & operator and CONCAT function both combine text from separate cells into one.
The Dataset
Here's an employee directory for a small marketing agency:
| A | B | C | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3 | First | Last | Dept |
| 4 | Sarah | Chen | Marketing |
| 5 | James | Miller | Sales |
| 6 | Olivia | Park | Finance |
| 7 | David | Santos | Marketing |
| 8 | Rachel | Kim | Sales |
The agency needs to pull names and contact info together for an upcoming mailing, plus labels for an org chart update.
The & Operator
The ampersand joins values together. To combine the first and last name in row 4:
=A4&" "&B4
The result is Sarah Chen. The " " in the middle adds a space. Without it, you'd get "SarahChen."
The & works with any mix of cell references and literal text. To build an email address:
=LOWER(A4&"."&B4&"@agency.com")
The result is sarah.chen@agency.com. LOWER converts everything to lowercase so the capitalization in the source cells doesn't carry over.
| First | Last | Full Name | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sarah | Chen | Sarah Chen | sarah.chen@agency.com |
| James | Miller | James Miller | james.miller@agency.com |
| Olivia | Park | Olivia Park | olivia.park@agency.com |
| David | Santos | David Santos | david.santos@agency.com |
| Rachel | Kim | Rachel Kim | rachel.kim@agency.com |
You can chain as many & joins as you need. To create a label for the org chart:
=A4&" "&B4&" ("&C4&")"
The result is Sarah Chen (Marketing). Each & glues the next piece on. Literal text like " (" and ")" goes in quotes.
Key takeaway: The & operator is the fastest way to combine text. Cell references, spaces, punctuation, whatever you put between & signs gets joined left to right.
CONCAT
CONCAT is the function version of &:
=CONCAT(text1, [text2, ...])
- text1: A value, cell reference, or range.
=CONCAT(A4, " ", B4)
The result is Sarah Chen, same as =A4&" "&B4. For two or three cells, there's no real difference. Most people reach for & out of habit.
Where CONCAT pulls ahead is with ranges. If you pass a range like =CONCAT(A4:A8), it runs through every cell and joins them in order. The & operator can't do that because you'd have to reference each cell individually.
CONCATENATE
CONCATENATE is the older version of CONCAT. It works the same way but doesn't accept ranges:
=CONCATENATE(A4, " ", B4)
The result is Sarah Chen. Microsoft replaced CONCATENATE with CONCAT in newer versions of Excel, but CONCATENATE still works and you'll run into it in older spreadsheets. For new formulas, stick with CONCAT or &.
Conclusion
The & operator handles most text combining. CONCAT is useful when you need to join a range of cells in one pass. For joining with a separator between each value, like commas or semicolons, see our guide on TEXTJOIN. For pulling text apart instead of building it, check out our guide on LEFT, RIGHT, and MID.
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