Tech Tuesday: How To Concatenate (Combine Information Into One Cell) On A Spreadsheet

When you’re working on a spreadsheet and you want to combine information from different cells into one cell, that is called concatenating. For example, you have the first and last names in two different cells and you want to combine them into a new cell.

Once you have your spreadsheet open, the steps for concatenating are:

1) Create a new column for the information.

2) In the new column, click in the cell that you want to put your information in, and click on the function (fx) button. That brings up a function wizard. Scroll down until you find “concatenate.” Then click the “next” button.

3) Under “text for concatenation,” type the cell that you want to combine (or click on the cell) in the first box. In the second box, add a quotation mark, a space, and another quotation mark. In the third box, add the second cell you want to combine. Click OK. Your formula in the cell should look like this,

Make sure that you keep a space between the two quotation marks in the formula. Whatever you put between the quotation marks (here I put a space) will show up in your cell.

In my first example, I combined the first and last names of the actors into one cell. I put first name then last name (A2,” “,C2).

In my second example, I put them last name, “comma”, first name (C2,”,”,A2).

This is good for presenting your spreadsheet while still keeping the data separate. It is good for doing things like making a mailing list, which I haven’t had to do yet. But I know one thing, you want to keep your data separate because you never know how you’ll have to present it.