Merge colums in Excel

**muldrick** · 03-24-2006, 03:21 PM

I have a column "First Name" and a column "Last name"
I want to merge these and just have just 1 column that includes both names.
Instead of "Bob" in the first column and "Smith" in the second column, I want Bob Smith in the single column.
Of course I am talking about an existing file with a list of names.

**tbird2340** · 03-24-2006, 03:28 PM

Assuming your Column A has first name and Column B has last name put this formula in Column C =A1&" "&B1

**paulm287** · 03-25-2006, 07:56 PM

highlight the selection you want to merge, and on the formatting toolbar click the "merge and center" button

**Wiredwrx** · 03-25-2006, 08:11 PM

Originally Posted by tbird2340

Assuming your Column A has first name and Column B has last name put this formula in Column C =A1&" "&B1

That is what I do, and then just drag the formula down the entire column, and it will do it for the entire list automatically. Then, you must copy and then paste special, choosing to paste the values or else you won't be able to manipulate the new data.

Michael

**Quack** · 03-25-2006, 10:52 PM

Originally Posted by Wiredwrx

That is what I do, and then just drag the formula down the entire column, and it will do it for the entire list automatically. Then, you must copy and then paste special, choosing to paste the values or else you won't be able to manipulate the new data.

Michael

I agree with the formula. Depending on the quality of your data, you may want to clean it up before you do it. You may want to get rid of leading of trailing spaces or put it all in the same format (upper, lower, proper). Here's a few examples:

It can get really sticky when you have user-entered data...like from a web form that doesn't have a data validation step. Then you've just got to be creative. I usually end up using =find("[whatever the bad character is],A1) to identify the stuff I want to get rid of and then sorting based on the "find" column. Useful with larger data sets that still fit on one excel sheet.