Ever wondered how to go from a bunch of cells with text to one big combined text? Like this:
Well, there is a simple trick, shared by Grant with us in the What is the coolest Excel trick you learned in 2013? post.
Quick and easy way to combine bunch of text values
- Let say the cells you want to combine are in B2:B19.
- In a blank cell, where you want to concatenate all the values type
- =CONCATENATE(TRANSPOSE(B2:B19))
- Don’t press enter yet.
- Select the TRANSPOSE(B2:B19) portion and press F9. (related: debugging formulas using F9 key)
- This replaces the TRANSPOSE(B2:B19) with its result
- Now remove curly brackets { and }
- Enter
- Done!
See this demo to understand.
Bonus tricks
- If you cannot use F9 for any reason, use CTRL+=
- If you want to add a delimiter (like space or comma) after each item in the text, you can use TRANSPOSE(B2:B19 & ” “) or TRANSPOSE(B2:B19 & “,”)
- If the range you want to concatenate is across columns (Say A1:K1), then you can skip the TRANSPOSE formula and write =CONCATENATE(A1:k1), Select A1:K1 and press F9, remove {}s.
Keep in mind
Since F9 replaces formulas with values, if your original data changes, then you must re-write the CONCATENATE(TRANSPOSE(…)) again.
If you would rather keep the formulas alive, then use CONCAT() UDF. It takes a range and a delimiter and spits out combined text with ease.
More on dealing with text using Excel
Here are a few more tips on working with text values in Excel.
- Finding patterns in text
- Extracting a portion of text
- Converting text to sentence case
- Separating user names & domains from email addresses
- Sorting text values using formulas
- Initials from names
- More text processing tips, quick tips.
Thank you Grant
Thanks Grant for sharing this trick with all of us. It is a time saver for sure.
If you like this tip, say thanks to Grant. Also, in the comments, tell us how you combine text values and what other tricks you use.
23 Responses to “Learn Top 10 Excel Features”
What it looks like if excel without formula?? 🙂
It would be not excel it would just be fancy tables in which you could just use power point. (Chandoo) would Access be an alternative?
Awesome piece of work!!!
Great article.
Chandoo - my biggest interest in the article was the awesome word-graphic at the top - where did you go to get it done into a shape?
@Rich.. thank you. I used http://www.tagxedo.com/ to generate this word cloud. I took all the comments in the original post, pasted them in tagxedo website and set up the shape etc.
Awesome Chandoo.. You need always needs coffee to start up with. BTW , how did u created the Heart Shaped picture filled with High Repetitive text in it .. Please put it on your Next blog ...
Chandoo, good article. I’ve added a link to it from Connexion – our collection of the most useful and interesting spreadsheet-related articles from the web. See http://www.i-nth.com/resources/connexion
Hi,
Just one small question. Where the hell have been I in the past for not discovering this website sooner?
I've lost a job interview recently where even though I had the subject knowledge, I was not upto their mark in Excel.
Thank you for all the free tips, guidance and for creating this forum environment.
[PS: I've just been through the site for the 1st time, and have signed up for the newsletter. You can expect pretty stupid questions from me soon]
Hy Chandoo, you always inspire me with to explore something new in excel. This data structure table is only for excel 2007 or compatible to 2010. I recently installed latest excel version 2013 in my System and experience problems regarding operating according to previous one. I'm waiting your article relates to that excel version.
Thanks
Awesome article Mr. Chandoo and that is a awesome heart shaped pic you created. Great tips as well.
[...] Learn Top 10 Excel Features | Chandoo.org – Learn Microsoft Excel Online. [...]
Chandoo is awesome..
Thanks, i got better, And i always get 90.50 in my grade card but now i get 96.50 i improved because of the tutorials you gave, Thank You Very Much Chandoo Guy.
Hi chandoo, i am intersted in seeing the video or step by step done procedure of analysing the comments and presenting in the data percentage steps. I think this one would be first step in finding out how generally happens data calculation. Thank you.
As well i would like to know how to get that black shape art of your face which i see in chandoo. I am interested in making it for me.
Nice to see the features considered by Excel users to be most useful. It might be a good idea to also analyze StackOverflow Excel questions to see what keywords appear most often.
Here are my top 10 Excel Features (for advanced users):
http://www.analystcave.com/excel-10-top-excel-features/
Thanks a ton for this it totally helped with my homework ????
Very good effort
Thank you for this. Lots of learning in the links you've provided for this septuagenarian.
Pls send me new post
Dude, your humor ? ?
Loved your work.
Hello Sir,
I am Sanjeev Khakre and i from Indore City, India , I am your big follower and i have watch your videos and learnt a lots of excel trick or function and many more . thanks so much for all of your excellent support.
Your excel knowledge is real awesome.
Thanks
Sanjeev
Your work is excellent but pls willing to know more details about the features of microsoft excel
Chandoo Would Access be a better alternative than VB?