Excel User Tips

Text and values in one cell

Did you know that you could combine text and values in a single cell?

For example, assume cell A12 contains the value 1435. Enter the following formula into another cell:

="Total: "&A12

The formula cell will display: "Total: 1435."

The ampersand is a concatenation operator that joins the text with the contents of cell A12.

Applying a number format to the cell containing the formula has no effect, because the cell contains text, not a value. As a work-around, modify the formula to use the TEXT function (the second argument for the TEXT function consists of a standard Excel number-format string).

="Total: "&TEXT(A12,"$#,##0.00")

This formula will display "Total: $1,435.00."

Here's another example formula that uses the NOW function to display some text along with the current date and time:

="Report printed on "&TEXT(NOW(),"mmmm d, yyyy at h:mm AM/PM")