In Excel: use =TEXTJOIN(delimiter, ignore_empty, range) — it joins a whole range into one string, putting your delimiter between items and optionally skipping blank cells.
Syntax
Arguments
| Argument | Description | |
|---|---|---|
delimiter | required | The text placed between each item, such as ", " for a comma-separated list. |
ignore_empty | required | TRUE skips blank cells (so no double delimiters); FALSE keeps them. |
text1 | required | The first cell, range or string to join, such as A2:A6. |
text2, ... | optional | Optional further cells, ranges or strings to append. |
Related functions
In the result cell type =TEXTJOIN( and type the delimiter in quotes, such as ", " for a comma-separated list.
Type a comma, then TRUE to skip blank cells (or FALSE to keep them).
Type a comma and select the range to join, such as A2:A6.
Close the bracket and press Enter to see the combined string.
Add more comma-separated ranges or cells before the closing bracket if the values are spread out.
What this does
TEXTJOIN joins many values into one string with a delimiter you set once, and it accepts a whole range rather than item-by-item arguments — its two big advantages over CONCATENATE. The first argument is the separator (for example ", "), the second decides whether blank cells are skipped (TRUE) or kept as empty slots (FALSE), and then you point it at a cell, a range, or several of them. With ignore_empty TRUE you never get doubled-up delimiters from gaps in the data. Most people learn this as a sequence of clicks and forget it by next week; learning it as a pattern instead is what lets you apply it to the next, slightly different version of the problem without starting from scratch. That is the difference this page is trying to make. The difference between a quick fix and a sheet you can trust is the extra minute you spend validating “excel textjoin function”. Start on a copy or a tiny sample, keep the affected formula visible, and compare the result with the tool above before you touch the real workbook. When a formula is involved, keep the inputs labelled beside it, reference cells instead of typing values, and apply number formatting only after the result checks out. The point is a text operation that turns messy entries into clean, usable data, but the practical win is that someone else can open the file and understand what happened without asking you.
A worked example
Tags sit in A2:A6 as "red", "", "blue", "", "green" with two blanks. =TEXTJOIN(", ", TRUE, A2:A6) returns "red, blue, green" — the comma-space separates each value and the empty cells are skipped, so there are no ", ," gaps. With FALSE instead of TRUE it would return "red, , blue, , green", keeping the blanks as empty entries. TEXTJOIN is the modern way to build delimited lists from a column — comma-separated tags, address lines, email recipients — joining a range in one step and skipping the blanks. A practical tip before you scale it up: build it once on a small block of test data, confirm the number against the tool on this page, and only then point it at your real sheet. That one habit catches almost every mistake while it is still cheap to fix, long before a wrong figure reaches a report or a colleague.
In Google Sheets
Google Sheets handles this almost identically to Excel. The formula syntax above is the same, and the menu lives under a slightly different label rather than a ribbon tab. Use the platform toggle at the top of the page to switch every keyboard shortcut between Windows and Mac, and expect at most cosmetic differences in naming. Nothing on this page is behind a login: the tool runs entirely in your browser, the formula is shown in full with one-click copy, and the steps work the same on Windows and Mac. That is the whole promise here — the exact answer, a way to prove it on your own numbers, and just enough context to make it stick. Treat “excel textjoin function” as a small building block rather than a chore. Once the inputs sit in their own cells and the formula reads from them, the same setup answers a dozen related questions with a tweak, and Excel keeps every dependent figure current as the data changes. The tool above is there so you can rehearse and verify before committing anything to a real workbook; the steps and worked example are there so the logic sticks. Get it right once and it stops costing you time — it starts saving it, every time the question comes back around.
Common mistakes
- Swapping the first two arguments — the delimiter comes first and ignore_empty second, not the other way around.
- Leaving ignore_empty as FALSE on data with gaps, which produces ugly doubled delimiters like "red, , blue".
- Forgetting the quotes around the delimiter, so a literal separator such as ", " is misread and the formula errors.
Frequently asked questions
How is TEXTJOIN better than CONCATENATE?
TEXTJOIN takes a whole range at once, sets the separator a single time instead of inserting it between every pair, and can skip blank cells automatically — three things CONCATENATE cannot do.
How do I stop empty cells from adding extra delimiters?
Set the second argument, ignore_empty, to TRUE. TEXTJOIN then skips blank cells entirely, so a range with gaps joins cleanly without ", ," runs.
Can TEXTJOIN use a line break as the delimiter?
Yes — use CHAR(10) as the delimiter, =TEXTJOIN(CHAR(10), TRUE, A2:A6), and turn on Wrap Text in the cell so each joined value appears on its own line.