{"id":3730,"date":"2020-11-06T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-11-06T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/careerfoundry.inbearbeitung.de\/en\/blog\/uncategorized\/how-to-use-concatenate-function-in-excel\/"},"modified":"2023-08-30T15:10:34","modified_gmt":"2023-08-30T13:10:34","slug":"how-to-use-concatenate-function-in-excel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/careerfoundry.inbearbeitung.de\/en\/blog\/data-analytics\/how-to-use-concatenate-function-in-excel\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Use the CONCATENATE Function in Excel"},"content":{"rendered":"

In Excel, the CONCATENATE function allows you to combine text from different cells into one cell. In this tutorial, we\u2019ll show you, step by step, how to use the CONCATENATE function.<\/strong><\/p>\n

When you\u2019re analyzing data with numbers in Excel, it\u2019s easy enough to combine or manipulate it through multiplication or addition. Manipulating text in Excel can be a little harder to achieve, however. So for cells that contain text, you\u2019ll need to try something different.<\/p>\n

If you want to starting using Excel for analytics, try CareerFoundry’s free data short course<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s where the CONCATENATE function comes in. In this guide, we\u2019ll cover:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. What is the CONCATENATE function and what is it used for?<\/a><\/li>\n
  2. How does the CONCATENATE function work in Microsoft Excel?<\/a><\/li>\n
  3. Things to consider before using CONCATENATE in Excel<\/a><\/li>\n
  4. How to use CONCATENATE in an Excel formula: A step-by-step tutorial<\/a><\/li>\n
  5. How to use CONCATENATE with special characters<\/a><\/li>\n
  6. How to use CONCATENATE with date number formats<\/a><\/li>\n
  7. How to handle line breaks using CONCATENATE<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    So: How does the CONCATENATE function work? Let\u2019s take a look.<\/p>\n

    1. What is the CONCATENATE function and what is it used for?<\/h2>\n

    If you want to combine data from two or more cells together, the best way to do it is to use the CONCATENATE<\/strong> function.<\/p>\n

    This lets you combine multiple cells together, whether they contain numbers or text, without affecting the original cells. There are several reasons why you may wish to do this.<\/p>\n

    If you have a list of addresses, for instance, you could use CONCATENATE to combine each section of the address (the name, the first line, the town, etc) into a single cell. This could then be copied or used elsewhere.<\/p>\n

    Using CONCATENATE or CONCAT in Excel<\/h3>\n

    From Excel 2016 onwards, CONCATENATE<\/strong> has been \u201creplaced\u201d with the CONCAT<\/strong> function. That means that, if you\u2019re using a later version of Excel, you can use either CONCATENATE or CONCAT. Older versions of Excel will need to stick to CONCATENATE, however.<\/p>\n

    CONCAT works exactly the same way as CONCATENATE, so any references to CONCATENATE below will work exactly the same for CONCAT. Both are interchangeable, and while CONCATENATE remains in place for compatibility reasons, it could be removed in future Office releases.<\/p>\n

    There aren\u2019t any additional benefits to using CONCAT over CONCATENATE, so feel free to use either function. If CONCATENATE is removed, however, then you\u2019ll need to switch to using CONCAT instead.<\/p>\n

    2. How does the CONCATENATE function work in Microsoft Excel?<\/h2>\n

    The word “concatenate” is a technical term, but it simply means linking things together.<\/p>\n

    That\u2019s exactly what CONCATENATE and CONCAT do in Excel, combining the contents of different cells and displaying them in a new cell.<\/p>\n

    \"An<\/p>\n

    While you could copy and paste the contents of each cell into a single cell yourself, or use Excel\u2019s cell merge feature to do it automatically, using CONCATENATE or CONCAT means that your original data is left untouched.<\/p>\n

    Most data analysts would prefer to leave source data intact, manipulating it instead by using pivot tables<\/a> or other Excel functions. The advantage of CONCATENATE or CONCAT is that you don\u2019t need to alter the source data at all, but instead refer to it. If the original data is modified, this will update the data displayed in the combined cell.<\/p>\n

    CONCATENATE also allows you to combine different types of data, such as numbers, dates, and text strings, which wouldn\u2019t typically be possible without it.<\/p>\n

    3. Things to consider before using CONCATENATE in Excel<\/h2>\n

    While the CONCATENATE and CONCAT functions allow you to easily combine data from other sources, there are some limitations that you\u2019ll need to be aware of.<\/p>\n

    These include, in no particular order:<\/p>\n