MS Excel: CONCATENATE Function (WS)

In Microsoft Excel, the CONCATENATE function allows you to join 2 or more strings together.

Syntax

The syntax for the CONCATENATE function is:

CONCATENATE( text1, text2, ... text_n )

text1 to text_n are the strings that you wish to join together. There can be up to 30 strings that are joined together.

Applies To

Excel 2013, Excel 2011 for Mac, Excel 2010, Excel 2007, Excel 2003, Excel XP, Excel 2000

Type of Function

Worksheet function (WS)

Worksheet Function Example

Let's take a look at an example to see how you would use the CONCATENATE function in a worksheet:

Microsoft Excel

Based on the Excel spreadsheet above, the CONCATENATE function would return the following:

=CONCATENATE(A1, A2)	would return "Alphabet"
=CONCATENATE("Tech on the ", "Net")	would return "Tech on the Net"
=CONCATENATE(A1, "bet soup")	would return "Alphabet soup"

Frequently Asked Questions

Question:For an IF statement in Excel, I want to combine text and a value.

For example, I want to put an equation for work hours and pay. If I am paid more than I should be, I want it to read how many hours I owe my boss. But if I work more than I am paid for, I want it to read what my boss owes me (hours*Pay per Hour).

I tried the following:

=IF(A2<0,"I owe boss" abs(A2) "Hours","Boss owes me" abs(A2)*15 "dollars")<

Is it possible or do I have to do it in 2 separate cells? (one for text and one for the value)

Answer: There are two ways that you can concatenate text and values. The first is by using the & character to concatenate:

=IF(A2<0,"I owe boss " & ABS(A2) & " Hours","Boss owes me " & ABS(A2)*15 &  " dollars")

Or the second method is to use the CONCATENATE function:

=IF(A2<0,CONCATENATE("I owe boss ", ABS(A2)," Hours"), CONCATENATE("Boss owes me ", ABS(A2)*15,  " dollars"))