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How to reverse the text to column function in Excel?

Author Xiaoyang Last modified

In Excel, the Text to Columns feature may help you to split the cell contents into multiple columns by a specific separator. But sometimes, you want to reverse the Text to Columns function to combine the separated cell values into only one cell as following screenshot shown. And this article, I will talk about how to reverse the Text to Columns feature to concatenate multiple columns into one.


Reverse the text to columns function with formulas

Normally, you can apply some formulas to reverse the text to columns function to combine the separated columns into only one, please do as follows:

1. Type one of the following formulas into the a cell where you want to combine the column cells, see screenshot:

=A2&" "&B2&" "&C2

=CONCATENATE(A2," ", B2," ",C2)

apply formulas to reverse texttocolumns

2. Then drag the fill handle down to the cells that you want to combine the cells, see screenshot:

drag and fill the formula to other cells

Note: In the above formula, A2, B2, and C2 is the cells that you want to combine into one, and the combined values are separated by space, you can also combine them with other delimiters just need to change the space to any other separator as you need.


Reverse the text to columns function with Kutools for Excel

If you have Kutools for Excel, with its powerful tool-Combine Rows, Column or Cells without Losing Data, you can concatenate multiple rows, columns and cells into one row, column and cell as you want without any formulas.See below demo.    Click to download Kutools for Excel!

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After installing Kutools for Excel, please do as follows:

1. Select the cells that you want to combine.

2. And then click Kutools > Merge & Split > Combine Rows, Column or Cells without Losing Data, see screenshot:

click Combine Rows, Column or Cells without Losing Data feature of kutools

3. In the popped out dialog box, please do the following operations:

(1. ) Select Combine columns option under the To combine selected cells according to following options;

(2. ) Specify a delimiter to separate the combined contents under the Specify a separator;

(3. ) Then choose one option you want to deal with the combined cells. You can keep or delete contents from other cells, and you can also merge those cells.

set options in the dialog box

4. Then click Ok or Apply, the separate columns have been reversed to combine into one column, see screenshot:

the separate columns have been reversed to combine into one column

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Reverse the text to columns function with User Defined Function

If there are multiple columns needed to be combined, you should apply the & characters to join the cell contents one by one, it will be much troublesome. But, with the following code, you can quickly combine multiple columns into one at once.

1. Hold down the ALT + F11 keys to open the Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications window.

2. Click Insert > Module, and paste the following code in the Module Window.

VBA code: Reverse the text to columns function:

Public Function ReverseTextToColumns(Rg As Range, Optional D As String = " ") As String
'updateby Extendoffice
    Dim xArr
    xArr = Application.WorksheetFunction.Transpose(Application.WorksheetFunction.Transpose(Rg.Value))
    ReverseTextToColumns = Join(xArr, D)
End Function

3. Then save and close this code, go back to the worksheet, and enter this formula: =reversetexttocolumns(A2:C2,","), and drag the fill handle down to the cells that you want to apply this formula, all the cell values in the columns have been combined into one column, see screenshot:

use a user defined function to reverse the textotcolumn

Note: In the above formula, A2:C2 is the column cells that you want to combine, and the comma “,” is the separator to separate the combined data, you can change them to your need.

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