How to Join Text with CONCAT in Excel

CONCAT joins cells and whole ranges into one string. Turn a row of quiz answers into an answer string and grade it against the key.

You will learn to

• Join a whole range with CONCAT
• Mix ranges and text in one CONCAT
• Compare two joined strings

How it works

CONCAT is the modern replacement for CONCATENATE. Its big advantage is that it accepts ranges: =CONCAT(B2:F2) joins five cells in one go, where CONCATENATE needed =CONCATENATE(B2,C2,D2,E2,F2). Arguments can mix ranges, single cells and text in quotes, e.g. =CONCAT(A2,": ",B2:F2).

CONCAT adds nothing between the pieces. If you need a separator such as a comma between every item, use TEXTJOIN instead. Because CONCAT returns text, you can compare two results with = to check whether two rows match exactly.

=CONCAT(B2:F2)