Introduction

The TEXTJOIN function in Microsoft Excel is a powerful tool that allows you to combine or join text from multiple cells, separating them with a specified delimiter. Unlike the traditional CONCATENATE or CONCAT functions, TEXTJOIN can handle empty cells gracefully and avoid adding unnecessary delimiters, making it particularly useful when working with large datasets. Whether you’re preparing reports, cleaning data, or creating lists, TEXTJOIN can simplify your work significantly.

Practical Uses

There are plenty of ways TEXTJOIN can be applied in real-world scenarios:

• Combining names from separate first and last name columns into a single full name column.
• Generating a comma-separated list of values from a range of cells, such as tags or item lists.
• Creating custom text strings for mailing labels or invoices by merging different pieces of data.

Sample Example

Imagine you have the following data in Excel:

A1: Anna
B1: Smith
A2: John
B2: Doe

You want to create a single column in column C that combines the first and last names with a space, resulting in “Anna Smith” and “John Doe”. TEXTJOIN makes this process seamless.

Step-by-Step Guide

Follow these steps to use the TEXTJOIN function:

1. Click on the cell where you want the combined text to appear, e.g., C1.
2. Enter the formula: =TEXTJOIN(" ", TRUE, A1, B1)
3. Press Enter, and the result will be “Anna Smith”.
4. Drag the formula down to apply it to other rows, e.g., C2 for “John Doe”.

Explanation of the formula:

• ” “ – This is the delimiter used to separate text. In this case, it’s a space.
• TRUE – This argument tells Excel to ignore empty cells in the range.
• A1, B1 – These are the text or cell references you want to join.

Tips and Tricks

Here are some best practices for working with TEXTJOIN:

• Tip #1: Use the TRIM function in combination with TEXTJOIN to remove unwanted spaces from your data.
• Tip #2: Test your delimiter. For example, you can use commas (“,”) or semicolons (“;”) to suit your needs for importing/exporting data to other systems.
• Tip #3: Be cautious with large datasets. If your range contains formulas that generate errors, TEXTJOIN will return an error unless you use the IFERROR function.

Explore More Tutorials

Learning TEXTJOIN is just the beginning! Unlock the full potential of Excel with more tips and tutorials available on the Smart Link Basics YouTube Channel. Our beginner-friendly content will take your Excel skills to the next level.

Check Out a Video Tutorial

Ready to see TEXTJOIN in action? Watch this step-by-step video tutorial:
Click here to watch the video.