Combine Text

You can store strings of text across multiple cells and combine them into a single cell.

To combine the text strings in the cell area into one select the cells to be combined and click Data-Combine Text. Cells themselves will not be combined; only the text strings entered in those cells will be combined in a single cell in the orientation you specify.

To combine text

1. Select the cells to combine text and click Data-Combine Text.
2. In the Combine Text dialog box, select Merge to Left as Direction.
3. Select Space as Separator and click OK.
4. The text strings in the selected cells will be combined into the leftmost cell. Text strings will be separated by spaces.

More Information

Combine Text Dialog Box

Direction

Specifies the orientation in which text will be combined. If you select Merge to Left and Merge to Top at the same time, combine text by columns left first and then text by rows upward.

• Merge to Left

  The text strings in the selected cells will be combined in the leftmost cell when multiple cells in a single row are selected.

• Merge to Top

  The text strings in the selected cells will be combined in the topmost cell when multiple cells in a single column are selected. If you select Merge to Left and Merge to Top at the same time, combine the text in the first row of the selected range to the leftmost cell, then combine the text in the second row to the left, and combine the text in the first row of the selection to the left. Join next to the cell on the left. In other words, it combines the text one row at a time to the left and then to the top cell, so you combine all the text in the leftmost cell in the selection.

Separator

Select a separator to separate the text strings in a cell when they are combined.

• None

  Do not use a separator.

• Space

  Use space as separator.

• Tab

  Use tab as separator.

• Comma

  Use comma (,) as separator.

• Custom (1)

  Use a symbol, character, or number of your own choosing as separator. Separator can be up to one character long.

• Custom (2)

  Use a symbol, character, or number of your own choosing as separator. Separator can be a long sentence.

Notes

Combine text in cells with formula applied

If you combine text including cell areas where formulas are applied, the formulas used in those cells are converted to text and combined instead of the result of formula calculation.

For example, when cells A1 and A2 contain the numbers 1 and 2 respectively, and cell A3 contains a formula that uses the SUM function to calculate the sum of two cells (e.g. =SUM(A1:A2)), A1~ If you combine the text in cell area A3 using the [Comma] delimiter, the resulting value is '1,2,=SUM(A1:A2)'.