# How to combine a column into one cell in Excel

Use =TEXTJOIN(", ",TRUE,A2:A7). It joins every value in the column with ", " between them and skips blanks.

**Excel:** `=TEXTJOIN(", ",TRUE,A2:A7)` (Excel 2021, 2024 and Microsoft 365)

**Google Sheets:** the same formula works.

## Example

Sample data (row 1 is the header):

| A | B | C |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Attendee |  | Attendee list |
| Aiko Tanaka |  |  |
| Ben Adams |  |  |
|  |  |  |
| Chidi Okafor |  |  |
| Dana Novak |  |  |
| Eli Haddad |  |  |

Formula in C2: `=TEXTJOIN(", ",TRUE,A2:A7)`

Result: Aiko Tanaka, Ben Adams, Chidi Okafor, Dana Novak, Eli Haddad

## How it works

TEXTJOIN accepts a whole range, unlike the & operator. The first argument is the separator, and TRUE skips empty cells so the blank row doesn't leave ", ," in the list.

## Other ways

- `=JOIN(", ",FILTER(A2:A7,A2:A7<>""))`: Google Sheets also has JOIN, which can't skip blanks by itself, so FILTER removes them first. TEXTJOIN works there too.
- `=TEXTJOIN(CHAR(10),TRUE,A2:A7)`: One name per line inside the cell. Turn on Wrap Text to see the lines. (Line breaks instead of commas.)

## Common mistakes

- CONCATENATE and CONCAT don't add a separator, and `=A2:A7&", "` spills one result per row instead of joining.
- A cell can hold at most 32,767 characters; TEXTJOIN returns #VALUE! beyond that.

## Questions

**How do I join only unique values?**

Remove repeats first: `=TEXTJOIN(", ",TRUE,UNIQUE(A2:A7))`.

**How do I join only the rows that match a condition?**

Filter first: `=TEXTJOIN(", ",TRUE,FILTER(A2:A7,B2:B7="Yes"))`.

Every formula and result on this page was checked by running it in the Spreadsheet Practice formula engine on 2026-10-30.

Source: https://spreadsheetpractice.com/formulas/combine-a-column-into-one-cell