If you learned Excel a few years ago, you joined text with CONCATENATE. Microsoft has replaced it with CONCAT — and the difference is not cosmetic.
The real difference: ranges
CONCATENATE only accepts values listed one by one:
=CONCATENATE(A2,B2,C2,D2)
Write =CONCATENATE(A2:D2) and it does not do what you expect. CONCAT does:
=CONCAT(A2:D2)
Four columns in twelve characters. On twenty columns the gap stops being a detail: one formula against twenty arguments, each of which can be mistyped.
💡 An easy way to remember it: the longer the name, the more arguments.
- CONCATENATE, the long name: every cell, one by one.
- CONCAT, the short name: only one range.
Is CONCATENATE dead?
No. Microsoft keeps it so that old workbooks keep working, and it has not announced any removal date. Your existing files are safe — there is no need to rewrite anything.
But Microsoft describes it as replaced, and all its documentation now points to CONCAT. The sensible rule:
- Old file → leave the CONCATENATE where they are.
- New formula → write CONCAT, or TEXTJOIN if you need a separator.
The version trap
CONCAT needs Excel 2019, Microsoft 365 or Excel for the web. CONCATENATE works everywhere, back to the oldest versions.
So if you share a file with colleagues still on Excel 2016, your CONCAT will show them #NAME? — Excel saying it does not know that function. In that situation the safest choice is neither of the two: use the & operator, which has worked in every version since the beginning.
In one line
CONCAT is CONCATENATE plus ranges. And if you also need a separator, or empty cells skipped, the answer is neither — it is TEXTJOIN.
Now practise
Join text in a real spreadsheet, free and corrected as you type: six steps, with the & operator, then CONCAT, then TEXTJOIN.
