# Microsoft Office Application Help - Excel Help forum > Excel Formulas & Functions >  >  CONCATENATE not working

## carlboone

I need to create a column of concatenated values to serve as a "primary key" for a compare and merge tool (Synkronizer).  For some reason, the CONCATENATE function isn't being recognized.  

If I enter 
  =CONCATENATE(A2,B2)
instead of showing the strings located in A2 and B2 it displays 
  =CONCATENATE(A2,B2)
in the cell.

I tried creating a new spreadsheet and it works just fine.  Does anyone have an idea of what might be happening?  I have compared all of the options between the two spreadsheets and don't see any difference in them.

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## Carim

Hi,

Does the following help ...

=A2&B2

HTH
Carim
 :Smilie:

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## oldchippy

> I need to create a column of concatenated values to serve as a "primary key" for a compare and merge tool (Synkronizer).  For some reason, the CONCATENATE function isn't being recognized.  
> 
> If I enter 
>   =CONCATENATE(A2,B2)
> instead of showing the strings located in A2 and B2 it displays 
>   =CONCATENATE(A2,B2)
> in the cell.
> 
> I tried creating a new spreadsheet and it works just fine.  Does anyone have an idea of what might be happening?  I have compared all of the options between the two spreadsheets and don't see any difference in them.



Hi carlboone,

Try these,

=A2 & B2 does this work?

check if the cell is formatted to text

check Tools > Options > View ... window options and un-tick formulas

oldchippy  :Smilie:

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## Carim

Don't understand your problem ...
Are you sure Tools Options View Formulas is ticked off  ?

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## carlboone

Nope.  If I enter =A2&B2, the value displayed is =A2&B2.

There's got to be some setting somewhere...  I just copied a row of data from the spreadsheet that's not working into my "test" spreadsheet and the function works fine in it.

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## Carim

Are you sure Tools Options View Formulas is ticked off ?

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## carlboone

Carim, it wasn't ticked off, so I ticked it and there is no difference.  However, I now see that the issue is that NO formulas are working, even a simple =A2.

The spreadsheet is being used simply to capture text data that is loaded to a server, so there never were any formulas in it before.

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## Carim

Is it your formula is still being read as text.
Click on the cell and change the format to General and click OK.
Then press F2 and Enter 

HTH
Carim
 :Smilie:

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## carlboone

THANKS!  Changing the format to General fixed the problem.  I really appreciate your help on this.

Now I have to document all of the associated changes (java code, spreadsheet structure, etc.) required to make the "primary key" work.  The designer of the spreadsheets made some stupid decisions and the java code that parses the xml is dependent on its current structure. The current structure doesn't allow creation of unique keys.

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## Carim

Glad you could fix your problem.

Thanks for the feedback

Carim
 :Smilie:

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## s.santosh2k

Thanks Carim, its fixed.  Really sometimes its the small things which bother more. 


santosh

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## heristar

i have the same problems :'(

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## protonLeah

double post deleted

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## protonLeah

@heristar,
Unfortunately _your post does not comply with Rule 2 of our Forum_ RULES. *Do not post a question in the thread of another member -- start your own thread.* 

If you feel an existing thread is particularly relevant to your need, provide a link to the other thread in your new thread. 

Old threads are often only monitored by the original participants.  New threads not only open you up to all possible participants again, they typically get faster response, too.

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## LauraDesigner

I was having this issue - I noticed as I entered in CONCATENATE...a little triangle was present on the formula. In newer versions of excel the formula has been shortened to CONCAT and works!! http://www.excelforum.com/images/smilies/smile.gif

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