# How to combine text from two cells in Excel

Join them with & and put a space in quotes between: =A2&" "&B2. TEXTJOIN joins whole ranges with a separator.

**Excel:** `=A2&" "&B2` (Excel 2019 and later, including Microsoft 365)

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

## Example

Sample data (row 1 is the header):

| A | B | C |
| --- | --- | --- |
| First | Last | Full name |
| Maria | Lopez |  |
| James | O'Neil |  |
| Aiko | Tanaka |  |
| Lars | Eriksen |  |
| Chidi | Okafor |  |

Formula in C2, filled to C6: `=A2&" "&B2`

Result: Maria Lopez; James O'Neil; Aiko Tanaka; Lars Eriksen; Chidi Okafor

## How it works

The ampersand `&` joins text. Without the `" "` in the middle you get "MariaLopez"; the quotes add a literal space.

## Other ways

- `=CONCAT(A2," ",B2)`: The function version of &. CONCATENATE does the same in older versions.
- `=TEXTJOIN(" ",TRUE,A2:B2)`: Joins a whole range with one separator and skips empty cells, so a missing first name doesn't leave a stray space.

## Common mistakes

- Numbers and dates lose their formatting when joined: a date becomes its serial number. Wrap them in TEXT, like `A2&" "&TEXT(B2,"mmm d")`.
- Google Sheets' CONCAT takes only two arguments; use & or CONCATENATE there for more.

## Questions

**How do I add a comma between the names?**

Put it in the quotes: `=B2&", "&A2` gives "Lopez, Maria".

**How do I combine a whole column into one cell?**

Use TEXTJOIN: `=TEXTJOIN(", ",TRUE,A2:A6)`.

Every formula and result on this page was checked by running it in the Spreadsheet Practice formula engine on 2026-10-29.

Source: https://spreadsheetpractice.com/formulas/combine-text-from-two-cells