Open your Excel and open the database in which the Columns has to be separated. If you have Data’s in the next cell, select the cell and right click on it. Click on Insert and select Shift Cells Right. I am trying to manipulate a bunch of string elements I have put in columns in Excel. I then filled the preceding column with data, and then the following column as well. Now I want to delete the column boundaries, leaving one column with the data from all the columns in that one.
The tutorial demonstrates different techniques to quickly merge two cells in Excel and combine multiple cells without losing data in Excel 2016, 2013, 2010 and lower.
Excel Text to Columns to Separate Addresses The technique you use to separate your address into multiple columns in Excel will depend on how your information is stored. In this example, the address column was separated into two lines, the street address on the first line and the city, state, zip on the second line. Soal Uukk Prakarya 8 2015. Tel311 tpack3. El Flujograma. Merge Cells button looks like on the Excel Ribbon: To merge two or more rows in your table, proceed with the following 4 steps: 1. Select the rows you want to merge and click on. CONCATENATE in Excel Combine Text Strings Cells and Columns.
In your Excel worksheets, you may often need to merge two or more cells into one large cell. For example, you may want to combine several cells for a better data presentation or structure. In other cases, there may be too much content to be displayed in one cell, and you decide to merge it with adjacent blank cells.
Whatever the reason, combining cells in Excel is not as straightforward as it may seem. If at least two cells you are trying to join contain data, the standard Excel Merge Cells feature will only keep the upper-left cell value and discard values in other cells.
But is there a way to merge cells in Excel without losing data? Of course there is. And further on in this tutorial, you will find a few solutions that work in all versions of Excel 2016, Excel 2013, Excel 2010 and lower.
Combine cells using Excel's Merge and Center feature
The fastest and easiest way to combine two or more cells in Excel is to use the built-in Merge and Center option. The whole process takes only 2 quick steps:
Select the contiguous cells you want to combine.
On the Home tab > Alignment group, click the Merge & Center
In this example, we have a list of fruits in cell A1 and we want to merge it with a couple of empty cells to the right (B2 and C2) to create a large cell that fits the entire list.
Once you click Merge and Center, the selected cells will be combined into one cell and the text is centered like in the following screenshot:
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Other merging options in Excel
To access a couple more merge options provided by Excel, click the little drop-down arrow next to the Merge & Center button and choose the option you want from the drop-down menu:
Merge Across - combine the selected cells in each row individually:
Merge Cells - join the selected cells into a single cell without centering the text:
Tip. To change the text alignment after merging, simply select the merged cell and click the desired alignment in the Alignment group on the Home tab.
Excel's merging features - limitations and specificities
When using Excel's built-in features to combine cells, there are a few things to keep in mind:
Make sure that all the data you want to include in a merged cell is entered in the left-most cell of the selected range because only the content of the upper-left cell will survive after merging, data in all other cells will be deleted. If you are looking to combine two or more cells with data in them, check out How to merge cells without losing data.
If the Merge and Center button is greyed out, most likely the selected cells are in Edit mode. Press the Enter key to cancel the Edit mode, and then try to merge cells.
None of standard Excel merging options works for the cells inside an Excel table. You have to convert a table to a usual range first (right click the table and select Table > Convert to Range from the context menu), and then combine the cells.
It's not possible to sort a range containing both merged and unmerged cells.
How to merge cells in Excel without losing data
As already mentioned, the standard Excel merge features keep the content of the top-left cell only. And although Microsoft has made quite a lot of improvements in the recent versions of Excel, the Merge Cells functionality seems to have slipped out of their attention and this critical limitation persists even in Excel 2013 and Excel 2016. Well, where there is no obvious way, there is a workaround :)
Method 1. Combine cells within one column (Justify feature)
This is a quick and easy method of merging cells keeping all their content. However, it requires that all the cells to be merged reside in one area in one column.
Select all the cells you want to combine.
Make the column wide enough to fit the contents of all cells.
On the Home tab, in the Editing group, click Fill > This will move the contents of the selected cells to the top-most cell.
Click Merge and Center or Merge Cells, depending on whether you want the merged text to be centered or not.
If the combined values spread across two or more rows, make the column a bit wider and repeat the process.
This merging technique is easy to use, however it does have a number of limitations:
Using Justify you can only join cells in a single column.
It works for text only, numerical values or formulas cannot be merged in this way.
It does not work if there are any blank cells in between the cells to be merged.
Method 2. Merge multiple cells with data in any range (Merge Cells add-in)
To be able to merge two or more cells in Excel without losing data and without extra 'tricks', we created a special tool - Merge Cells for Excel.
Using this add-in, you can quickly combine multiple cells containing any data types including text, numbers, dates and special symbols. Also, you can separate the values with any delimiter of your choosing such as a comma, space, slash or line break.
To join cells exactly the way you want them, configure the following options:
Choose Cells into one under 'What to merge'.
Select the delimiter under 'Separate values with'.
Specify the cell where you want to place the result: top-left, top-right, bottom-left or bottom-right.
Make sure the Merge all areas in the selection option is selected. If this box is not checked, the add-in will work like the Excel CONCATENATE function, i.e. combine the values without merging the cells.
Apart from joining cells, this tool can quickly merge rows and columns, you just have to select the corresponding option in the 'What to merge' drop-down list.
To give the Merge Cells add-in a try, you are welcome to download the evaluation version that works with Excel 2016, 2013, 2010, 2007 and 2003.
Method 3. Use the CONCATENATE function to combine two or multiple cells
Users who feel more comfortable with Excel formulas, may like this way to combine cells in Excel. You can employ the CONCATENATE function or Excel & operator to join the cells' values first, and then merge the cells if needed. The detailed steps follow below.
Supposing you want to combine two cells in your Excel sheet, A2 and B2, and both cells have data in them. Not to lose the value in the second cell during merging, concatenate the two cells by using either of the following formulas:
=CONCATENATE(A2,', ',B2)
=A2&', '&B2
How To Combine Two Columns Text In Excel
The formula, however, inserts the concatenated values in another cell. If you do need to merge two cells with the original data, A2 and B2 in this example, then a few extra steps are required:
Copy the cell with the CONCATENATE formula (D2).
Paste the copied value in the top-left cell of the range you want to merge (A2). To do this, right click the cell and select Paste Special > Values from the context menu.
Select the cells that you want to join (A2 and B2) and click Merge and Center.
In a similar manner, you can merge multiple cells in Excel, the CONCATENATE formula will be just a little bit longer in this case. An advantage of this approach is that you can separate values with different delimiters within a single formula, for example:
=CONCATENATE(A2, ': ', B2, ', ', C2)
You can find more formula examples in the following tutorial - CONCATENATE in Excel: combine text strings, cells and columns.
Shortcut for merging cells in Excel
If you merge cells in your Excel worksheets on a regular basis, you may find useful the following Merge Cells shortcut.
Select the cells you want to merge.
Press the Alt key that provides access the commands on the Excel ribbon and hold it until an overlay appears.
Hit H to select the Home tab.
Press M to switch to Merge & Center.
Press one of the following keys:
C to merge and center the selected cells
A to merge cells in each individual row
M to merge cells without centering
At first sight, the merge shortcut seems a bit long-winded, but with a little practice you may find this way to combine cells faster than clicking the Merge and Center button with the mouse.
How to quickly find merged cells
To find merged cells in your Excel sheet, perform the following steps:
Press Ctrl + F to open the Find and Replace dialog, or click Find & Select > Find.
On the Find tab, click Options > Format.
On the Alignment tab, select the Merge cells box under Text control, and click OK.
Finally, click either Find Next to select the next merged cell, or Find All to find all merged cells on the sheet. If you choose the latter, Microsoft Excel will display a list of all found merged cells and let you navigate between them by selecting one of the merged cells in this list:
How to unmerge cells in Excel
If you changed your mind immediately after merging cells, you can quickly unmerge them by pressing the shortcut Ctrl + Z or clicking the Undo button on the Quick Access Toolbar.
To split the previously merged cell, select that cell and click Merge & Center, or click the little arrow next to Merge & Center, and select Unmerge Cells:
After unmerging the cells, the entire contents will appear in the top-left cell.
Alternatives to merging cells in Excel
It goes without saying that merged cells can help present the information in your Excel worksheets in a better and more meaningful way… but they spawn numerous side-effects that you may not be even aware of. Mac text editor for coding. Here are just a few examples:
You can't sort a column with merged cells.
Neither AutoFill nor Fill Flash feature works if a range of cells to be filled contains merged cells.
You cannot turn a range containing at least one merged cell into a full-fledged Excel table, let alone a pivot table.
So, my advice would be to think twice before merging cells in Excel and do this only when really needed for presentation or similar purposes, e.g. to center the table title across the table.
If you want to combine cells somewhere in the middle of your Excel sheet, you may consider using the Center Across Selection feature as an alternative:
Select the cells that you'd like to join, B4 and C4 in this example.
Press Ctrl + 1 to open the Format Cells
Switch to the Alignment tab and select the Center Across Selection option from the Horizontal drop-down list, and then click OK.
In terms of look, the result is indistinguishable from the merged cell:
To prove that we did not really merge two cells, we can select each one individually:
This is how you can combine two cells in Excel or merge multiple cells without losing data. Hopefully, this information has proved useful for your day-to-day tasks. I thank you for reading and hope to see on our blog next week.
You may also be interested in:
Merge Cells add-in for Excel - quick way to merge multiple cells, rows and columns.
How to merge rows in Excel without losing data - how to quickly merge multiple rows without losing data; combine duplicate rows, repeatedly merge blocks of rows and consolidate matching rows from two different spreadsheets.
How to merge two columns in Excel without losing data - three methods to combine columns keeping all the data.
When you want to combine two cells into one in Excel, you have a few options. Merging cells is one of the best ways to do it. But it has a few drawbacks, too. Even so, you might find that it’s useful for working with text in Excel.
We’ll take a look at how to merge cells in Excel, how to unmerge them, and another method for combining two cells into one without losing the data in the cells.
Wrap Text In Excel
How to Merge Cells in Excel
Before we get into how to merge cells, let’s talk about exactly what happens when you merge in Excel. In this example, we’ll look at two columns, one for first name and one for last name:
When we merge two of these cells, we end up with the contents of those cells in a single cell, like this:
The two cells have been combined, leaving a single cell that’s twice as wide and only contains one value. Excel only keeps the upper-left value of any merged cells. That’s one drawback to merging in Excel. We’ll talk about how to get around that in a moment.
To merge cells in Excel, select the cells you want to merge. You can select any number of cells; in our example, we’ll select just two. Once you’ve selected the cells, head to the Home tab and click Merge & Center in the Alignment section:
If you’ve selected more than one with text in it, you’ll get a warning:
If you want to continue, just hit OK. You’ll then have your merged cell as in the screenshot below. That’s all there is to it. What text editor do you use for mac.
Merging Columns in Excel
In some cases, you’ll want to merge entire columns instead of just a few cells. Merging columns in Excel is easy; just select both columns and use the same steps.
First, highlight the two columns you want to merge:
If you hit the Merge & Center button right now, you’ll end up with one huge cell that has a single value in it. Instead, click the dropdown arrow next to Merge & Center and select Merge Across:
After clicking Merge Across, you’ll receive another warning from Excel. But instead of a single warning, you’ll get one warning for each row in your selection. Which is a lot. After clicking OK for each row, you’ll have a newly combined column:
Geany text for mac. You might be wondering why you wouldn’t just delete the second column in this case. Well, you probably would. Merging columns doesn’t do a whole lot for you.
Let’s talk about a better way to merge cells in Excel.
Combining Cells With CONCATENATE
The fact that combining cells makes you lose data is a big disadvantage of using Excel’s merging function. However, you can get around that by using a formula. Here’s the syntax of the CONCATENATE function, one of Excel’s most useful text functions:
The function takes multiple text inputs and creates a new cell that combines all of them. This lets you merge cells without losing any data. Let’s use the same spreadsheet as before, with the list of first and last names. Instead of merging the cells and losing the last names, we’ll create a new column and use CONCATENATE to bring in both the first and last names.
Here’s the formula we’ll use in the new columns:
Notice that between B2 and C2 we have a space between two quotes. This is important because it inserts a space between the contents of the cells being merged. If you forget it, you’ll get the first and last names mashed together.
Here’s what it looks like in Excel:
When I hit Enter, here’s what we get:
Much better than our first attempt, isn’t it?
You also have the advantage of being able to modify the combination later, whereas you cannot do that when you merge cells the regular way.
How to Unmerge Cells in Excel
If you decide to merge cells, you’ll also want to know how to unmerge or split them.
Unfortunately, unmerging doesn’t bring any of your lost data back. When you merge cells in Excel, you’re going to lose some information, and it’s gone forever. Merged cells can create weird spaces in your spreadsheet, though, and unmerging them solves the problem.
To split cells in Excel, just select the merged cell, click the dropdown arrow next to Merge & Center, and click on Unmerge Cells:
The cells will go back to their original count and size. You’ll still only have the data from the upper-left corner of your selection, though. This is one reason why it’s a good idea to work on a copy of your spreadsheet (or use the CONCATENATE function).
Merging Cells Can Still Be Useful
While you’ll need to use CONCATENATE to merge cells without losing data, there are still some uses of merging in Excel. It’s often used for formatting to clean up a table, for example, which may help you get a better print of your spreadsheet:
In general, though, it’s better to use CONCATENATE if you’re looking to merge cells without losing data.
That being said, you may find that you come across a situation where you need to merge cells in Excel. Even an Excel beginner will need to use them every day. So, when you find one of those situations now, you’ll know exactly how to do it.
And don’t forget that you can merge Excel files and sheets tooHow to Merge Excel Files and SheetsHow to Merge Excel Files and SheetsNeed to merge multiple datasets into one spreadsheet? It's a tedious task if done manually. We'll show you smart ways to merge Excel files.Read More!
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The first thing I teach Excel beginners is NEVER Merge & Center. Merged cells are never helpful and they will make it harder for the next person to build on your work. The correct way to center a title over a number of columns is Center Across Selection. For combining two or more strings, Concatenate will work, but it's better (quicker and easier) to use an Ampersand '&' to join the strings.
Agreed Concatenate is no use here ampersand does the job easily. And Flash fill does the rest to populate the column.
Merging cells is horrible. It will not help you with almost anything. Try to select a column using keyboard for example, won't work if the cells are merged. If you concern in clean up and formatting i suggest the center across selection function, work the same way without merging the cells..