Cell's literal value

[kane]

Using Excel97

I have a data set downloaded from another program. It has several
columns filled with text values. I would like to combine this text
strings into one column.


What is the best way to do this?

Is there a way I can refer to the cell's literal value rather than as
a reference to the cell and save the literal value into a new cell?

Thanks in advance.

Andy

 

[tclohesy]

You can use a formula for putting text together from a bunch of
different cells.

Say you had:

A B C D
1 Mr John M Anderson
2 etc
3 etc

you could have a formula which stuck all of them together like this:

=A1&" "&B1&" "&C1&". "&D1

Basically this gives the value of each cell with the text contained in
the speech marks in between, so you'd get:

Mr John M. Anderson

If you want only the text, you could copy this cell, and then right
click on the cell you want the data and go to Paste Special, then
choose Values. Then only the text and not the formula will be copied.
This may be a bit long-winded if you have lots to do, but you could try
using a macro to help with a repetitive task

HTH