CONCAT function: Description, Usage, Syntax, Examples and Explanation
What is CONCAT function in Excel?
CONCAT function is one of TEXT functions in Microsoft Excel that combines the text from multiple ranges and/or strings, but it doesn’t provide the delimiter or IgnoreEmpty arguments.
Tip: To include delimiters (such as spacing or ampersands (&) between the texts you want to combine and to remove empty arguments you don’t want to appear in the combined text result, you can use the TEXTJOIN function.
Note: This function replaces the CONCATENATE function. However, the CONCATENATE function will stay available for compatibility with earlier versions of Excel.
Syntax of CONCAT function
CONCAT(text1, [text2],…)
| Argument | Description |
| text1 (required) |
Text item to be joined. A string, or array of strings, such as a range of cells. |
| [text2, …] (optional) |
Additional text items to be joined. There can be a maximum of 253 text arguments for the text items. Each can be a string, or array of strings, such as a range of cells. |
For example, =CONCAT(“The”,” “,”sun”,” “,”will”,” “,”come”,” “,”up”,” “,”tomorrow.”) will return The sun will come up tomorrow.
- If the resulting string exceeds 32767 characters (cell limit), CONCAT returns the #VALUE! error.
Examples of CONCAT function
Steps to follow:
1. Open a new Excel worksheet.
2. Copy data in the following table below and paste it in cell A1
Note: For formulas to show results, select them, press F2 key on your keyboard and then press Enter.
You can adjust the column widths to see all the data, if need be.
Example 1
| Data | First Name | Last name |
| brook trout | Andreas | Hauser |
| species | Fourth | Pine |
| 32 | ||
| Formula | Description | Result |
| =CONCAT(“Stream population for “, A2,” “, A3, ” is “, A4, “/mile.”) | Creates a sentence by joining the data in column A with other text. | Stream population for brook trout species is 32/mile. |
| =CONCAT(B2,” “, C2) | Joins three things: the string in cell B2, a space character, and the value in cell C2. | Andreas Hauser |
| =CONCAT(C2, “, “, B2) | Joins three things: the string in cell C2, a string with a comma and a space character, and the value in cell B2. | Hauser, Andreas |
| =CONCAT(B3,” & “, C3) | Joins three things: the string in cell B3, a string consisting of a space with ampersand and another space, and the value in cell C3. | Fourth & Pine |
| =B3 & ” & ” & C3 | Joins the same items as the previous example, but by using the ampersand (&) calculation operator instead of the CONCAT function. | Fourth & Pine |