Exceljet

Quick, clean, and to the point

Join first and last name

Excel formula: Join first and last name
Generic formula 
=first&" "&last
Summary 

To join separate first and last names together into a single full name, you use concatenation. In the generic version of the formula above, first is first name, and last is last name. In the example shown, the formula in cell D5 is:

=B5&" "&C5

The result is the text in B5 joined to the text in C5, separated by a space.

Explanation 

The ampersand character (&) is a special operator in Excel that is used for concatenation. Concatenation is just a fancy word for "join". In the formula, the text in B5 "Susan" is being joined to a space character (" ") and then to the text in cell C5, "Chang".

When you use concatenation in a formula, be sure to enclose literal text in double quotes (""). Do not enclose the ampersand (&) in quotes, unless you want it to appear in the final result.

With CONCATENATE

You can also use the CONCATENATE function to join text like this:

=CONCATENATE(B5," ",C5)

The CONCATENATE function keeps things tidy, but the ampersand creates shorter, more flexible formulas.

Author 
Dave Bruns
Related formulas 
Excel formula: Get first name from name
Get first name from name
The FIND function finds the first space character (" ") in the name and returns the position of that space in the full name. The number 1 is subtracted from this number to account for the space itself. This number is used by the LEFT function as the...
Excel formula: Get last name from name
Get last name from name
At the core, this formula uses the RIGHT function to extract characters starting from the right. The other functions which make up the complex part of this formula just do one thing: they calculate how many characters need to be extracted. At a high...
Excel formula: Get first name from name with comma
Get first name from name with comma
At a high level, this formula uses RIGHT to extract characters from the right side of the name. To figure out the number of characters that need to be extracted to get the first name, the formula uses the FIND function to locate the position of...
Excel formula: Get last name from name with comma
Get last name from name with comma
At a high level, this formula uses LEFT to extract characters from the left side of the name. To figure out the number of characters that need to be extracted to get the last name, the formula uses the FIND function to locate the position of ", " in...
Excel formula: Get name from email address
Get name from email address
At the core, this formula is extracting characters starting from the left, and using the FIND function to figure out how many characters to extract. First, FIND looks for the "@" character inside the email address " achang@maaker.com ". The "@"...
Excel formula: Join cells with comma
Join cells with comma
Working from the inside out, the formula first joins the values the 5 cells to the left using the concatenation operator (&) and a single space between each value: B5 & " " & C5 & " " & D5 & " "...
Related functions 
Excel CONCATENATE function
Excel CONCATENATE Function

The Excel CONCATENATE function concatenates (joins) join up to 30 text items together and returns the result as text. The CONCAT function replaces CONCATENATE in newer versions of Excel.

Related courses 
Core Formula

Excel Formula Training

Formulas are the key to getting things done in Excel. In this accelerated training, you'll learn how to use formulas to manipulate text, work with dates and times, lookup values with VLOOKUP and INDEX & MATCH, count and sum with criteria, dynamically rank values, and create dynamic ranges. You'll also learn how to troubleshoot, trace errors, and fix problems. Instant access. See details here.

500 Formulas | 101 Functions

Download 200+ Excel Shortcuts

Get over 200 Excel shortcuts for Windows and Mac in one handy PDF.