What CONCAT does
CONCAT joins multiple text values into one result. Unlike TEXTJOIN, it does not insert separators for you, so it is best when the text should flow together directly or when you want to add separators manually.
Practical examples
Combine two cells with a manual separator
=CONCAT(A2,"-",B2)
This creates values like invoice codes or compound IDs such as North-204.
Combine all text in a row
=CONCAT(A2:C2)
This joins the values from the selected cells in their existing order without adding spaces or commas.
Common mistakes and notes
CONCAT does not insert delimiters
If you want spaces, hyphens, or commas, you need to include them explicitly in the formula or use TEXTJOIN instead.
Blank cells still affect the result structure
CONCAT joins values exactly as provided. If some cells are blank and you expected clean punctuation, TEXTJOIN is often easier because it can ignore empties.
Ranges can create very long strings
Joining large ranges can produce results that are hard to read or exceed the cell text limit. For reporting, it is usually better to keep the input range narrow.