How to merge and unmerge cells in Excel

You have many options when you want to combine two cells into one in Excel. Merge Excel (Merge Excel) is the best way. However, it also has some limitations. However, this is still a very useful way of handling text in Excel.

Microsoft Excel Microsoft Excel for Android Microsoft Excel for iOS Microsoft Excel Online

This article will give you how to combine and unmerge cells in Excel and some tips to combine two cells into one without losing data.

How to merge cells in Excel

Let's find out the following example:

The two columns that merge cells together will be First Name and Last Name. When you merge two cells in these columns, you'll see the following result:

Two small cells combine to form a double width and contain only one value. Excel keeps only the previous value located to the left of any merged cells. It is limited when combining cells in Excel.

To merge Excel cells, select the cells you want to merge. You can choose any number of cells. In this example, we only select two cells. When you're done, go to the Home tab , then click Merge & Center in the Alignment section .

If you select more than one cell containing text, you will receive the following warning:

If you want to continue, just click OK . You will see the merged cell as the screenshot below:

Merge columns in Excel

In some cases, you will want to merge the entire column instead of just a few cells. Combining columns in Excel is easy, just select the two columns and follow the same steps above.

First, choose the two columns you want to merge:

If you press the Merge & Center button , you will have a large cell containing only a single value. Instead, click the down arrow next to Merge & Center and select Merge Across :

After clicking Merge Across , you will get another notification from Excel. But instead of a notification, you'll receive an alert for each row in the selection. After clicking OK in each row, you have immediately a new merge column.

You may be wondering why not delete the second column in this case. You can do that if you want.

Combine cells with CONCATENATE

In fact, data loss is a major drawback when using the feature of cell aggregation in Excel. However, you can avoid that by using the CONCATENATE formula . This is one of the most useful features of Excel: = CONCATENATE (text 1, [text 2], ...) .

This feature gathers a lot of content and creates a new cell, combining them all. It allows you to merge cells without losing data. For example, applying it in the First and Last Name columns in the above worksheet, instead of merging the cells that lost their names, we will create a new column, then use CONCATENATE to get both first and last name data.

This is the formula used in the new column: = CONCATENATE (B2, "", C2) .

Note that there is a space between quotation marks between B2 and C2. This is important because it places a space between the contents of the merged cells. If this is not done, the names will overlap.

When you press Enter , the result is as follows:

Easier than the first one, right?

The great advantage of this way is that it allows you to edit the combination later. You cannot do it in the normal way.

How to unmerge cells in Excel

If you decide to merge Excel cells, you'll want to know how to remove them.

Unfortunately, unpacking cells doesn't help you regain data. When you merge cells in Excel, you will lose some information forever. The merged cells can create strange spaces in the worksheet and unassuming them will solve this problem.

To unmerge cells, just select the merged cells, click the down arrow next to Merge & Center> Unmerge Cells :

The cells will return to their original size and position even though there is only data left in the left column. This is why you should make a copy of your spreadsheet (or use CONCATENATE ).

Merging is still useful

If you don't want to lose data, you need to use CONCATENATE to merge cells. However, the usual way to merge Excel cells is still useful in case you want to tidy up your worksheet or have multiple data cells in a single heading. For example:

Hope the article is helpful to you!