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CONCAT vs CONCATENATE vs TEXTJOIN in Excel and Sheets
Heads up: Excel and Google Sheets do this differently.
Excel
=CONCATENATE(A2," ",B2)Google Sheets
=TEXTJOIN(" ",TRUE,A2,B2)✓
Verified example
Computed by a real spreadsheet engine on the sample data below.
| First Name | Last Name |
| Alice | Smith |
| Bob | Jones |
| Carol | White |
| David | Brown |
| Eve | Davis |
=CONCATENATE(A2," ",B2)→Alice Smith
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Step by step
- 1Identify whether you need a delimiter between values — if yes, TEXTJOIN is the cleanest choice.
- 2For simple joins of individual cells, use =CONCATENATE(A2, " ", B2) or the & operator: =A2&" "&B2.
- 3For CONCAT (Excel 2019+), write =CONCAT(A2:B2) to join a range without specifying each cell — note it adds no delimiter.
- 4For TEXTJOIN, write =TEXTJOIN(", ", TRUE, A2:A6) — the second argument TRUE skips empty cells.
Tips
- Prefer the & operator for quick one-off joins and TEXTJOIN when you need to join a range with a consistent separator.
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Frequently asked
Is CONCATENATE going away?
Microsoft keeps CONCATENATE for backward compatibility, but recommends CONCAT or TEXTJOIN in newer workbooks.
Can TEXTJOIN skip blank cells?
Yes — set the second argument (ignore_empty) to TRUE and TEXTJOIN will omit any blank cells in the range.