CONCAT Function in Excel: Join Text From Cells and Ranges

CONCAT Function in Excel: Join Text From Cells and Ranges featured illustration

📎 This article includes 2 downloadable practice files ↓

⏱ 2 min readUpdated 28 September 2026

TextLevel: BeginnerAvailable in: Excel 2019+

In this article
  1. Syntax
  2. Examples
  3. Example 1
  4. Example 2
  5. Example 3
  6. CONCAT in practice
  7. Where you will use it
  8. Worked example
  9. Mistakes people make
  10. Related functions
  11. Continue learning

CONCAT joins text from several cells or whole ranges. It replaces the older CONCATENATE. The & operator does the same for a few cells.

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Syntax

=CONCAT(text1, [text2], ...)
Argument What it means
text1… Text, cells or ranges to join.

Examples

Example 1

=CONCAT(A2, " ", B2)

First and last name with a space.

Example 2

=A2&" "&B2

Same result with &, works in every version.

Example 3

="INV-"&TEXT(C2,"0000")

Invoice number with leading zeros: INV-0042.

💡 Need a separator between many cells, or to skip blanks? Use TEXTJOIN.

CONCAT in practice

Where you will use it

  • Build full names from first and last name
  • Create keys like Invoice-GSTIN for matching
  • Make readable labels: Region - Month

Worked example

FirstLastCityFormulaResult
RaviKumarPune=CONCAT(A2," ",B2," (",C2,")")Ravi Kumar (Pune)
AnitaSharmaDelhi=CONCAT(A3," ",B3," (",C3,")")Anita Sharma (Delhi)
MohammedIrfanHyderabad=CONCAT(A4," ",B4," (",C4,")")Mohammed Irfan (Hyderabad)

Results calculated in Excel.

Mistakes people make

MistakeWhat to do instead
Forgetting the spacesAdd " " between parts, or use TEXTJOIN with a delimiter
Joining dates and amounts directlyWrap with TEXT: TEXT(D2,"dd-mmm-yyyy")

TEXTJOIN · TEXT · LEFT

📚 Part of the free Excel course: Beginner → Expert · Try it in the Formula Lab or ask the AI Helper.

⚡ Interactive Practice Lab & Formula Tester:

Test formulas dynamically in our web formula laboratory or download the companion Excel workbook.

Continue learning

All Text guides →
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📎 Practice files for this article

⬇ Download all 2 files (ZIP · 38 KB)

  • 📗
    Text-cleaning scenarios workbookExtract and clean text (GSTIN, PAN, emails, names) with PASS/FAIL checks, plus the 3 mistakes that break text formulas.
    ⬇ XLSX · 8 KB
  • 📗
    Practice workbook: Text & cleaning24 tasks on realistic sales data — type your formula, the Check column turns green when it is right. Answers sheet included.
    ⬇ XLSX · 35 KB

Free to use for learning. Files with macros (.bas) are plain text — import them with Alt+F11 → File → Import File, and always test on a copy.

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