The 2 Most Basic (Yet Powerful) Excel Functions You’re Probably Ignoring

If you've ever struggled with combining names, merging address fields, or creating email IDs from names?

Chances are, you’ve been doing it manually — and wasting hours.

Let me introduce you to two powerful text functions in Excel that feel basic… But when used right, they can solve real-world problems beautifully.

Say hello to: ✅ CONCATENATE ✅ TEXTJOIN

Let’s break them down 👇

1️⃣ CONCATENATE – The Classic Combiner

What it does: Combines values from multiple cells into a single string.

Example: You have:

• First Name in A2 → Amit
• Last Name in B2 → Jain

Formula: =CONCATENATE(A2, " ", B2) Result → Amit Jain

Where it's used:

• Creating full names
• Merging city and pin codes
• Creating custom labels or codes
• Generating email IDs: =CONCATENATE(A2, ".", B2, "@company.com")

Note: In Excel 2016 and later, Microsoft recommends using TEXTJOIN or & instead, but CONCATENATE still works.

2️⃣ TEXTJOIN – The Smarter Sibling

What it does: Joins values from a range or list, using a delimiter, and even lets you skip blanks!

Example: =TEXTJOIN(" ", TRUE, A2:C2) If A2 = “Amit”, B2 = “”, C2 = “Jain” → Result: Amit Jain

Why it’s powerful:

• You don’t need to select cell by cell
• Works perfectly even if some cells are blank
• Cleaner and more dynamic than CONCATENATE

Use cases:

• Address formatting: Combine Street, City, State, Pin
• Product labels: Join product name + category + code
• Merging survey responses
• Joining comments or tags from multiple cells

🤯 Use Them with Other Functions for Magic

Here's where the fun begins.

Combine TEXTJOIN or CONCATENATE with other Excel functions like:

• IF: Add conditional logic
• TRIM: Remove unwanted spaces
• UPPER/LOWER: Format names/emails
• FILTER + TEXTJOIN: Create dynamic lists in dashboards
• TEXTJOIN + UNIQUE (in Office 365): Join only unique values with a delimiter

Example: =TEXTJOIN(", ", TRUE, IF(A2:A10="Yes", B2:B10, "")) → Joins all values in B2:B10 where A2:A10 says “Yes”

This is how you go from beginner to smart Excel problem solver.

💡 In Summary

✅ CONCATENATE is great for simple merges

✅ TEXTJOIN is dynamic, smarter, and skips blanks

✅ Combined with logic and formatting, these functions handle 80% of your daily text manipulation needs

Mastering just these two can drastically reduce repetitive work in Excel.

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Let’s not just learn Excel — let’s Excel in life. Until next time, keep exploring and automating!

— Amit Jain Founder, Bizwiz.co.in | Microsoft MVP | Excel Trainer Helping 2,00,000+ professionals transform their careers through Excel and automation