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TEXTJOIN vs CONCATENATE: joining with a delimiter in Excel and Sheets
Excel & Google Sheets
=TEXTJOIN(", ",TRUE,A2:A4)Try it with your data
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Step by step
- 1TEXTJOIN(", ", TRUE, A2:A4) joins the range with ", " and the TRUE skips empty cells — "Apple, Banana, Cherry".
- 2CONCATENATE(A2, ", ", A3, ", ", A4) needs every cell and separator spelled out.
- 3Use TEXTJOIN for ranges and clean delimiters; CONCATENATE only for a couple of fixed pieces.
Tips
- Set the second argument FALSE to keep empty cells (and their delimiters).
- CONCATENATE is legacy — modern Excel and Sheets prefer TEXTJOIN or the & operator.
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Frequently asked
Is CONCAT the same as CONCATENATE?
CONCAT replaces CONCATENATE and can take a range, but unlike TEXTJOIN it has no delimiter or skip-blanks option.