# How to combine text and a number without losing formatting in Excel

Wrap the number in TEXT with the format you want: =A2&" sales: "&TEXT(B2,"$#,##0"). The & operator alone drops currency signs, commas and percent signs.

**Excel:** `=A2&" sales: "&TEXT(B2,"$#,##0")&" ("&TEXT(C2,"+0.0%;-0.0%")&")"` (Every current version)

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

## Example

Sample data (row 1 is the header):

| A | B | C | D |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Region | Sales | Growth | Summary |
| East | 1250430.5 | 0.084 |  |
| West | 982115 | -0.031 |  |
| North | 1504220.75 | 0.127 |  |
| South | 764980.2 | 0.002 |  |

Formula in D2, filled to D5: `=A2&" sales: "&TEXT(B2,"$#,##0")&" ("&TEXT(C2,"+0.0%;-0.0%")&")"`

Result: East sales: $1,250,431 (+8.4%); West sales: $982,115 (-3.1%); North sales: $1,504,221 (+12.7%); South sales: $764,980 (+0.2%)

## How it works

Cell formatting is only on screen; joining with & uses the stored value, 1250430.5. TEXT applies a format inside the formula: `"$#,##0"` adds the dollar sign and commas and rounds to whole dollars, and `"+0.0%;-0.0%"` multiplies by 100, keeps one decimal and shows a sign for both positive and negative values (the part after the semicolon is for negatives).

## Other ways

- `=A2&" sales: "&B2&" ("&C2&")"`: Plain joining, to see the problem. ("East sales: 1250430.5 (0.084)": the formatting is gone.)

## Common mistakes

- TEXT returns text, so the summary column can't be summed. Keep the numbers in their own columns.
- Format codes follow your spreadsheet's language and separators. A European Excel may need `"# ##0 €"`.

## Questions

**How do I show the number in thousands, like $1,250K?**

A comma at the end of the format divides by 1,000: `=TEXT(B2,"$#,##0,")&"K"`.

**How do I keep two decimals?**

Use `TEXT(B2,"$#,##0.00")`.

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-text-and-a-number-keep-formatting