concatenating

[Mindy]

Hello, I'm hoping someone can help me with something. I need to concatenate two columns, be it's not working. I type =CONCATENATE(A4," ",B4) but it puts that instead of doing the action. What's wrong? If someone can help me, I would really appreciate it. Thanks! Mindy

 

[Max]

Maybe calculation is in "manual" mode ?

Press F9. Does it calculate ?

To check / change the calculation mode:
-------------------------------------------------------
Click Tools > Options > Calculation tab > Check "Automatic" > OK
(This will set calculations to "Automatic")

The calculation mode is set by the first excel book
opened in the Excel session.

If the first book opened has "manual" setting for calculation mode,
all subsequent books opened during the same Excel session will
be at "manual" calc, irrespective of their own saved calc mode.

Btw, you can also use ampersand "&" to concatenate
viz. : =A4&" "&B4
(much shorter <g>)

--
hth
Max
-----------------------------------------
Please reply in thread
Use xdemechanik <at>yahoo<dot>com for email
--------------------------------------------------------

Hello, I'm hoping someone can help me with something. I need to

concatenate two columns, be it's not working. I type =CONCATENATE(A4,"
",B4) but it puts that instead of doing the action. What's wrong? If
someone can help me, I would really appreciate it. Thanks! Mindy

 

[David McRitchie]

Hi Mindy,
See if F2 followed by Enter fixes problem.

Make sure you do not have a space before the equal sign.
Make sure you have calculation turned to automatic
Tools, Calculation (tab), automatic
---
HTH,
David McRitchie, Microsoft MVP - Excel [site changed Nov. 2001]
My Excel Pages: http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/excel.htm
Search Page: http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/search.htm

Hello, I'm hoping someone can help me with something. I need to concatenate two columns, be it's not working. I type

=CONCATENATE(A4," ",B4) but it puts that instead of doing the action. What's wrong? If someone can help me, I would really
appreciate it. Thanks! Mindy

 

[Mindy]

Thanks for responding. I tried both of your suggestions, but it's still not working? Any other ideas?

Mindy

----- David McRitchie wrote: ----

Hi Mindy
See if F2 followed by Enter fixes problem

Make sure you do not have a space before the equal sign
Make sure you have calculation turned to automati
Tools, Calculation (tab), automati
--
HTH
David McRitchie, Microsoft MVP - Excel [site changed Nov. 2001
My Excel Pages: http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/excel.ht
Search Page: http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/search.ht

Hello, I'm hoping someone can help me with something. I need to concatenate two columns, be it's not working. I typ

=CONCATENATE(A4," ",B4) but it puts that instead of doing the action. What's wrong? If someone can help me, I would reall
appreciate it. Thanks! Mind

 

[Max]

You may be in Formula view?

Try:

Click Tools > Options > View tab > Uncheck "Formulas" > OK

--
hth
Max
-----------------------------------------
Please reply in thread
Use xdemechanik <at>yahoo<dot>com for email
---------------------------------------------

Thanks for responding. I tried both of your suggestions, but it's still not working? Any other ideas?

Mindy

----- David McRitchie wrote: -----

Hi Mindy,
See if F2 followed by Enter fixes problem.

Make sure you do not have a space before the equal sign.
Make sure you have calculation turned to automatic
Tools, Calculation (tab), automatic
---
HTH,
David McRitchie, Microsoft MVP - Excel [site changed Nov. 2001]
My Excel Pages: http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/excel.htm
Search Page: http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/search.htm

Hello, I'm hoping someone can help me with something. I need to

concatenate two columns, be it's not working. I type

=CONCATENATE(A4," ",B4) but it puts that instead of doing the action.

What's wrong? If someone can help me, I would really

 

[David McRitchie]

actually I had 3 suggestions.

Try retyping the formula.
which should be the same as F2 then Enter
if you carefully examine the formula,
but perhaps there is something you don't see that is messing it up.

Format the column as General and then use F2 then Enter on the cell.
---
HTH,
David McRitchie, Microsoft MVP - Excel [site changed Nov. 2001]
My Excel Pages: http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/excel.htm
Search Page: http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/search.htm

Thanks for responding. I tried both of your suggestions, but it's still not working? Any other ideas?

Mindy

----- David McRitchie wrote: -----

Hi Mindy,
See if F2 followed by Enter fixes problem.

Make sure you do not have a space before the equal sign.
Make sure you have calculation turned to automatic
Tools, Calculation (tab), automatic
---
HTH,
David McRitchie, Microsoft MVP - Excel [site changed Nov. 2001]
My Excel Pages: http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/excel.htm
Search Page: http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/search.htm

Hello, I'm hoping someone can help me with something. I need to concatenate two columns, be it's not working. I type

=CONCATENATE(A4," ",B4) but it puts that instead of doing the action. What's wrong? If someone can help me, I would really
appreciate it. Thanks! Mindy

 

[David McRitchie]

Hi Mindy,
Since you have more than one possibility, please do tell
us what the solution was, so that we can remember that one
better for next time.

 

[Mindy]

Hi David,
I just tried your suggestions and it still won't work.
Today I opened a new spreadsheet and I put my first name
in one cell and my last name in the next cell. I clicked
on the first cell and typed =concatenate(A1, " ",B1)" now
it's putting a 0 in the first cell. I checked and both
cells are deemed as general. Any other suggestions?
Mindy

-----Original Message-----
actually I had 3 suggestions.

Try retyping the formula.
which should be the same as F2 then Enter
if you carefully examine the formula,
but perhaps there is something you don't see that is messing it up.

Format the column as General and then use F2 then Enter on the cell.
---
HTH,
David McRitchie, Microsoft MVP - Excel [site changed Nov. 2001]
My Excel Pages: http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/excel.htm
Search Page: http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/search.htm

"Mindy" <[email protected]> wrote in

message (e-mail address removed)...

Thanks for responding. I tried both of your suggestions, but it's still not working? Any other ideas?

Mindy

----- David McRitchie wrote: -----

Hi Mindy,
See if F2 followed by Enter fixes problem.

Make sure you do not have a space before the equal sign.
Make sure you have calculation turned to automatic
Tools, Calculation (tab), automatic
---
HTH,
David McRitchie, Microsoft MVP - Excel [site changed Nov. 2001]
My Excel Pages: http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/excel.htm
Search Page: http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/search.htm

"Mindy" <[email protected]> wrote in

message (e-mail address removed)...something. I need to concatenate two columns, be it's
not working. I typeof doing the action. What's wrong? If someone can help
me, I would really

 

[Max]

Today I opened a new spreadsheet and I put my first name
in one cell and my last name in the next cell. I clicked
on the first cell and typed =concatenate(A1, " ",B1)" now
it's putting a 0 in the first cell.

From the above, I gather you're putting the formula in A1?
and cell A1 is where you've inserted your first name?
You're going to get a circular ref error !

You've got to put the formula: =CONCATENATE(A1," ",B1)
into a cell *other* than A1 and B1, for example in cell C1

Then it'll work ..

 

[Gord Dibben]

Mindy

Just for info.....

=A1&" "&B1 entered in C1 as Max points out

will work just as well as =CONCATENATE(A1," ",B1)

If you're typing it in, saves a few keystrokes. If using the Function Wizard
doesn't make much difference.

Gord Dibben Excel MVP

 

[Hazen]

Hi Mindy; I ran into this at work - took a while but I
did find solution at MS support. The problem is
formatting not the concatenate formula. Believe it or
not, you must force formatting with F2 and then enter.
For details, check out
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-
us;213970&Product=xlw

BTW, do you know that you can do concatenate with just
the & sign between your values? Less typing, for your
formula try =A4&" "&B4

Hope this helps, Hazen

-----Original Message-----
Hello, I'm hoping someone can help me with something. I

need to concatenate two columns, be it's not working. I
type =CONCATENATE(A4," ",B4) but it puts that instead of
doing the action. What's wrong? If someone can help me,
I would really appreciate it. Thanks! Mindy