Add a line break with a formula

Summary

To add a line break with a formula, you can use the concatenation operator (&) along with the CHAR function. In the example shown the formula in E4 is:

=B4&CHAR(10)&C4&CHAR(10)&D4

Generic formula

="text"&CHAR(10)&"text"

Explanation

This formula "glues together" the pieces of text that appear in B4, C4, and D4 using the ampersand (&) which is the concatenation operator in Excel.

In between each piece of text, the CHAR function appears with the character code 10. The character code for a line break in Excel varies depending on the platform. On Windows, the code is 10 and on a Mac it's 13.

The result of the concatenation is text with line breaks:

Traci Brown¬
1301 Robinson Court¬
Saginaw, MI 48607

Note: make sure you have Wrap Text enabled on cells that contain line breaks.

In Excel 365, both Win and Mac versions of Excel use CHAR(10) as a line break.

Author

Dave Bruns

Hi - I'm Dave Bruns, and I run Exceljet with my wife, Lisa. Our goal is to help you work faster in Excel. We create short videos, and clear examples of formulas, functions, pivot tables, conditional formatting, and charts.