The Excel CONCAT function concatenates (joins) values supplied as references or constants. Unlike the CONCATENATE function (which CONCAT replaces), CONCAT allows you to supply a range of cells to join, in addition to individual cell references.
Syntax
The syntax for the CONCAT function in Microsoft Excel is:
=CONCAT( text1, [ text2, ... text_n ] )
Parameters or Arguments
text1, text2, … text_n
The strings that you wish to join together. There can be up to 255 strings that are joined together, up to a maximum of 8,192 characters.
Concat Function Examples
Example 1 – Concatenating Simple Text
Column D of the following spreadsheet shows two simple examples of the Concat function.
Formulas:
Results:
Example 2 – Concatenating Dates
If you want to concatenate dates in Excel, you need to beware that dates and times are actually stored as simple numbers in Excel, and if you enter a date or a time directly into the Concat function, the underlying number will appear in the resulting text string, rather than the actual date or time.
Therefore, if you want to concatenate a date or a time, you need to use the Excel Text function to convert the date or time value into a text string first. This is shown in the example below:
Formula:
Result:
Note that, in the example above:
- An additional space and the additional text string “, DOB: ” have been used in the Concat function, to separate the values in cells A2-C2.
- The Text function has been used to convert the date value in cell C2 into a string, using the date format “mm/dd/yy”.
Notes:
- The Concat function can handle up to 254 text arguments.
- The result of the Concat function must not exceed 32,767 characters.
- Each of the supplied text arguments can be an array of text strings/values or a single text string/value.
- The Concat function was first introduced in Excel 2019 and so is not available in earlier versions of Excel. If you have an earlier version of Excel, use the Concatenate function instead.
Concat vs. Concatenate
The Excel Concat function, introduced in Excel 2019, replaces the old Concatenate function.
The Concat function can accept ranges of cells (as well as single cells or values) as arguments, whereas the Concatenate function can only accept single cells or values.
Concat vs. Textjoin
The Excel Concat function and the Textjoin function both join together text strings.
The difference between these two functions is that the Textjoin function can accept a delimiter to be inserted between the individual text strings, whereas the Concat function can not.