Batch string concatenation in Excel

Question

I have a couple hundred of cells in Excel I would like to concatenate into a single string. Is there a simpler method of doing this than going through them one by one manual

Answer 1

where the values that you would like to concantenate start in row 2 column 3 of your sheet

Sub GOWN()
roww = 2
Do While cells(roww, 2) <> ""
    aa = cells(roww, 3)
    dd = dd & aa & ","
    roww = roww + 1
Loop
cells(roww + 1, 3) = dd
End Sub

Answer 2

Press Alt-F11, insert new module, paste code bellow.

Public Function concatRange(data As Range, Optional sep As String = "") As String
    Dim ret As String
    Dim sep2 As String
    ret = ""
    sep2 = ""

    For Each cell In data
        ret = ret & sep2 & cell.Value
        sep2 = sep
    Next cell

    concatRange = ret
End Function

Usage:

=concatRange(A8:D11;", ")    'OS with ; list separator
=concatRange(A8:D11,", ")    'OS with , list separator or in a macro code

or

=concatRange(A8:D11)

Answer 3

This VBA function will concatenate the contents of cells, with an optional delimiter, if needed. Copy it into a standard module:

  Option Explicit

  Function Concat(CellRange As Range, Optional Delimiter As String) As String 
 ' this function will concatenate a range of cells and return the result as a single string
 ' useful when you have a large range of cells that you need to concatenate
 ' source: http://chandoo.org/wp/2008/05/28/how-to-add-a-range-of-cells-in-excel-concat/

  Dim retVal As String, dlm As String, cell As Range
  retVal = ""
  If Delimiter = Null Then
      dlm = ""
  Else
    dlm = Delimiter
  End If
  For Each cell In CellRange
      If CStr(cell.Value) <> "" And CStr(cell.Value) <> " " Then
          retVal = retVal & CStr(cell.Value) & dlm
      End If
  Next
  If dlm <> "" Then
      retVal = Left(retVal, Len(retVal) - Len(dlm))
  End If
  Concat = retVal
End Function

Answer 4

Just add your deliminator in one concatenation:

=concatenate(A1, ",")

Then copy all the concatenations, paste them as Values. Then Copy those Values, paste them in a transposition. Then copy the Transposed values and paste them into a word editor. Do a find for the deliminator AND the space preceding the values and do a replace for JUST the deliminator. This should give you a concatenated string of all the values with a deliminator. This is much easier than other options.

Answer 5

If your looking for a pure Excel approach (ie no VBA) then the method proposed by James Jenkins is best. If you are happy using VBA then open up the VBA editor, add a new module, and add this code:

Option Explicit

Public Function JoinText(cells As Variant,Optional delim_str As String) As String
    If cells.Columns.count < cells.Rows.count Then
       JoinText = Join(WorksheetFunction.Transpose(cells), delim_str)
    Else
       JoinText = Join(WorksheetFunction.Transpose(WorksheetFunction.Transpose(cells)), delim_str)
    End If
End Function

To open the VBA editor easily press Alt-F11. To insert a module you right-click on the workbook listed in the 'Project' window.

The function is called from excel as follows:

=JoinText(A1:C1)

If you want to add a delimiter (eg comma):

=JoinText(A1:C1,",")

The purpose of using the transpose function is to turn the 2d array, 'cells', into a 1d array. The reson for this is that the VBA function Join only accepts a 1d array. The reason for using two of them is if JoinText is looking at a row of cells (which is still just a 2d array) then the first call to transpose, transposes this 2d row array into a 2d column array, the second call turns it into a 1d array.

Answer 6

concatenate(a1, a2, a3, a4, a5, a6, a7, a8, a9, a10, a11, a12, a13, a14, a15, a16, a17, a18, a19, a20, a21, a22, a23, a24, a25, a26, a27, a28, a29, a30, a31, a32, a33, a34, a35, a36, a37, a38, a39, a40, a41, a42, a43, a44, a45, a46, a47, a48, a49, a50, a51, a52, a53, a54, a55, a56, a57, a58, a59, a60, a61, a62, a63, a64, a65, a66, a67, a68, a69, a70, a71, a72, a73, a74, a75, a76, a77, a78, a79, a80, a81, a82, a83, a84, a85, a86, a87, a88, a89, a90, a91, a92, a93, a94, a95, a96, a97, a98, a99, a100, a101, a102, a103, a104, a105, a106, a107, a108, a109, a110, a111, a112, a113, a114, a115, a116, a117, a118, a119, a120, a121, a122, a123, a124, a125, a126, a127, a128, a129, a130, a131, a132, a133, a134, a135, a136, a137, a138, a139, a140, a141, a142, a143, a144, a145, a146, a147, a148, a149, a150, a151, a152, a153, a154, a155, a156, a157, a158, a159, a160, a161, a162, a163, a164, a165, a166, a167, a168, a169, a170, a171, a172, a173, a174, a175, a176, a177, a178, a179, a180, a181, a182, a183, a184, a185, a186, a187, a188, a189, a190, a191, a192, a193, a194, a195, a196, a197, a198, a199, a200, a201, a202, a203, a204, a205, a206, a207, a208, a209, a210, a211, a212, a213, a214, a215, a216, a217, a218, a219, a220, a221, a222, a223, a224, a225, a226, a227, a228, a229, a230, a231, a232, a233, a234, a235, a236, a237, a238, a239, a240, a241, a242, a243, a244, a245, a246, a247, a248, a249, a250, a251, a252, a253, a254, a255)

PowerShell it!

"concatenate(a$((1..255) -join ', a'))" | clip

Open the text file copy and paste

"To quickly select cells you can press CTRL and click on cells you want to be included in the concatenate function. Example, Select a cell Type =concatenate( in formula bar Press and hold CTRL button and click cells to be included. Release CTRL button Type ) in formula bar and press Enter"