How to combine first and last names in Excel
The & operator joins text together. Add a space in quotes between the pieces, or they run into each other.
TEXTJOIN is useful for longer lists, because you give it the separator once.
The formula
| A | B | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | First | Last |
| 2 | Amara | Okafor |
=A2&" "&B2Result: Amara Okafor
Joins the first name, a space and the last name.
Step by step
- Type =A2&" "&B2.
- Press Enter and fill down.
Other ways to write it
=CONCAT(A2," ",B2)The function version of &.=TEXTJOIN(" ",TRUE,A2:B2)Puts the separator between every cell in a range, and can skip blanks.
Each of these gives the same result on the example above, in Excel and in Cellwise.
Common mistakes
- Forgetting the space
- =A2&B2 gives AmaraOkafor. Add " " between them.
- Numbers losing their format
- Joining a date or price shows the raw number. Wrap it in TEXT, such as TEXT(C2,"$#,##0.00").
Reading isn’t the same as doing
Joining text together gives you real tasks on this, and tests your formulas on data you haven’t seen. It’s free, with no sign-up.