How to Combine Text From Two Cells in Excel (&, CONCAT, TEXTJOIN)

A contact list has first names in one column and last names in another, and the mail merge wants a single "Full name" column. Or a report needs a sentence like "Maria started on March 2, 2026" built from cells. Joining text is one of the most common spreadsheet jobs, and Excel offers three ways to do it. Each one has a quirk worth knowing before you fill it down a thousand rows.

The results shown below are what Excel returns for these formulas. The sample sheet has First (A), Middle (B), Last (C), Start date (D) and Balance (E):

First	Middle	Last	Start	Balance
Maria	Elena	Lopez	Mar 2, 2026	1234.5
Sam		Chen	Oct 19, 2026	87

1. Method 1: the ampersand

Microsoft's help page on combining cells starts with the ampersand (&). Type =, select the first cell, type &" "&, then select the second cell:

=A2&" "&C2

This returns Maria Lopez. The " " is a space in quotes. Without it, you get MariaLopez. Anything in quotes is added exactly as typed, so =C2&", "&A2 gives Lopez, Maria.

2. Method 2: CONCAT

CONCAT does the same job as a function. Microsoft's example pattern:

=CONCAT(C2,", ",A2)

This also returns Lopez, Maria. Microsoft notes that CONCAT replaces the older CONCATENATE function, which stays available for compatibility, and that CONCAT is available in Office 2019 and Microsoft 365.

CONCAT can also take a whole range. With email addresses in F2:F5, =CONCAT(F2:F5) runs them all together with nothing in between, which is rarely what you want. That is the job of the third method.

A Google Sheets difference: Google's help page describes its CONCAT as joining exactly two values, equivalent to the & operator. A three-part formula that works in Excel will not work in Sheets with CONCAT. Use the & operator or TEXTJOIN instead when a sheet must work in both.

3. Method 3: TEXTJOIN, for separators and blanks

TEXTJOIN takes a separator, a TRUE or FALSE for whether to skip empty cells, and then the text to join. Microsoft lists the syntax as TEXTJOIN(delimiter, ignore_empty, text1, ...).

This matters as soon as a cell is blank. Sam has no middle name:

=A3&" "&B3&" "&C3

This returns Sam Chen with two spaces. You can confirm it with =LEN(), which counts 9 characters instead of 8. That extra space is invisible on screen but breaks exact-match lookups later. TEXTJOIN avoids it:

=TEXTJOIN(" ",TRUE,A3:C3)

This returns Sam Chen, and the same formula on row 2 returns Maria Elena Lopez. The TRUE tells Excel to skip the empty middle cell.

The same idea turns a column into a list. With three addresses in F2:F5 and F4 empty:

=TEXTJOIN(", ",TRUE,F2:F5)

This returns the three addresses separated by commas. Change TRUE to FALSE and you get a stray , , where the blank cell was. Microsoft notes that if the result is longer than 32,767 characters, the cell limit, TEXTJOIN returns #VALUE!.

4. Joining dates and numbers without losing their format

Here is the trap that catches almost everyone:

=A2&" started on "&D2

You might expect "Maria started on March 2, 2026." Excel returns Maria started on 46083. Microsoft's TEXT function page explains why: when you combine text with formatted numbers such as dates, times or currency, Excel drops the number formatting. 46083 is the serial number Excel uses to store that date.

The fix is to format the value inside the formula with TEXT:

=A2&" started on "&TEXT(D2,"mmmm d, yyyy")

This returns Maria started on March 2, 2026. The same applies to money:

="Balance: "&TEXT(E2,"$#,##0.00")

This returns Balance: $1,234.50 instead of Balance: 1234.5. A shorter date code works too: =TEXT(D3,"ddd, mmm d") returns Mon, Oct 19.

Microsoft adds a caution: TEXT converts numbers to text, which makes the result hard to use in later calculations. Keep the original date or number in its own cell, and point any math at that cell, not at the combined label.

5. Fixing capitalization while you combine

Imported names often arrive in odd cases. Microsoft's TEXT page points to UPPER, LOWER and PROPER for this. =PROPER("mARIA lopez") returns Maria Lopez, and =UPPER(C2)&", "&A2 returns LOPEZ, Maria, a common style for name badges.

6. Turning formulas into plain text

A combined column still depends on its source cells. If you plan to delete the First and Last columns, copy the combined column and paste it back as values first. Otherwise, every result turns into an error the moment its source disappears.

7. Which method to choose

Situation	Best choice
Two or three cells, quick label	&
Function style, Excel only	CONCAT
Some cells may be blank	TEXTJOIN with TRUE
A column into one list	TEXTJOIN
Dates, times or money in the text	TEXT inside any of the above

8. Key takeaways

• =A2&" "&C2 joins two cells with a space; anything in quotes is added as typed.
• Excel's CONCAT accepts many items, but Google Sheets' CONCAT joins only two values.
• TEXTJOIN with TRUE skips blank cells, avoiding double spaces and empty list entries.
• Combining text with a date shows its serial number; wrap the date in TEXT to keep it readable.
• Keep original numbers in their own cells, since TEXT results are text, not numbers.