The CONCATENATE function, one of Excel's text functions, is used to join two or more words or text strings together.

The syntax for the CONCATENATE function is:

= CONCATENATE ( text1, text2, ... text255 )

Text1, text2, ... text255 can be words, cell references, blank spaces, or numbers.

Up to 255 text entries can be added to the CONCATENATE function. Each entry must be separated by a comma.

Example Using Excel's CONCATENATE Function:

Note: The concatenate function does not automatically leave a blank space between words or other data.

To add spaces between the concatenated data we will add a space to lines Text 2 and Text 4 of the dialog box using the space bar on the keyboard .

1. Enter the following data into specified cells:
   D1 - 4
   E1 - hours
    
2. Click on cell D3 - the location where the results of the function will be displayed.
    
3. Click on the Formulas tab.
    
4. Choose Text Functions from the ribbon to open the drop down list.
    
5. Click on CONCATENATE in the list to bring up the function's dialog box.
    
6. On line Text 1 of the dialog box, type in the words "We will arrive in" (no quotations).
    
7. On line Text 2 of the dialog box, press the space bar to add a blank space (Excel will add double quotation marks around the space when we click on the next line).
    
8. On line Text 3 of the dialog box, click on cell D1 to enter that cell reference into the dialog box.
    
9. On line Text 4 of the dialog box, press the space bar to add a blank space.
    
10. On line Text 5 of the dialog box, click on cell E1 to enter that cell reference into the dialog box.
     
11. Click OK.
     
12. The concatenated sentence "We will arrive in 4 hours" should appear in cell D3.
     
13. The complete function = CONCATENATE( "We will arrive in", " ", D1," ", E1) appears in the formula bar above the worksheet.