CONCATENATE Function in Google Sheets

CONCATENATE in Google Sheets joins two or more text strings into a single string. It is the traditional way to combine cell values, labels, and separators into one cell. You provide the pieces, and CONCATENATE glues them together in order.

CONCATENATE does not add spaces or delimiters between the strings. You need to include any separators yourself.

Parameters

Parameter	Required	Description
string1	Yes	The first string or cell reference to join. Numbers and dates are converted to text automatically.
string2, ...	No	Additional strings or cell references. You can include up to 255 arguments.

Examples

Join first and last name

Combine a first name in A2 with a last name in B2, separated by a space:

=CONCATENATE(A2, " ", B2)

If A2 is “Jane” and B2 is “Smith”, this returns “Jane Smith”. The space between the names is a literal text string passed as the second argument.

Build a full address

Combine city, state, and ZIP from three columns into one string:

=CONCATENATE(C2, ", ", D2, " ", E2)

If C2 is “Portland”, D2 is “OR”, and E2 is “97201”, this returns “Portland, OR 97201”. Each separator (comma-space, space) is its own argument.

Combine text with a number

Create a label that includes a calculated value:

=CONCATENATE("Total: $", B10)

If B10 contains 1250, this returns “Total: $1250”. Google Sheets converts the number to text automatically. Note that number formatting (like thousand separators) is not preserved in the conversion.

Common Errors

#N/A --- CONCATENATE itself rarely produces errors. If you see #N/A, it is likely from a cell reference that contains an error. Wrap the reference in IFERROR() to handle it: =CONCATENATE(A2, " ", IFERROR(B2, "")).

Missing spaces --- CONCATENATE does not insert any characters between arguments. If your result looks like “JaneSmith” instead of “Jane Smith”, you forgot to include a space string " " between the name arguments.

Tips

The ampersand (&) operator does the same thing as CONCATENATE and is shorter to write: =A2 & " " & B2 produces the same result as =CONCATENATE(A2, " ", B2). Most experienced Sheets users prefer & for readability.

If you need to join a range of cells with a consistent delimiter (like commas), use TEXTJOIN instead. =TEXTJOIN(", ", TRUE, A2:A10) joins all values in A2:A10 with a comma and space, and the TRUE argument skips empty cells. CONCATENATE cannot accept a range as a single argument this way.