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Excel: CONCATENATE vs. multiple &'s 5

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herkiefan

herkiefan

Technical User
Oct 13, 2006
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Hi,

Expert Opinions needed.

Is there any reason why someone would use CONCATENATE to merge cells vs. multiple &'s?

Quick Example:

A B C
1 Michael Q Franklin

=CONCATENATE(A1," ",B1," ",C1)
vs.
=A1&" "&B1&" "&C1

They both equal Michael Q Franklin, so why would Experts, such as those found at Tek-Tips, choose one method over the other?

“Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former.”-Albert Einstein
 
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Habit. Personal likes. Documentation. I know three ways to do Bold. Which one is right? All.
 
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Personally I use "&". Only because, for me, it is faster.

[tt][blue]-John[/blue][/tt]
[tab][red]The plural of anecdote is not data[/red]

Help us help you. Please read FAQ 181-2886 before posting.
 
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Presumably the &&&& approach results in each concatenation being evaluated sequentially. This could potentially be slower - however we don't know what is inside the CONCATENATE() function.

I use & because I can't spell concatenate correctly.
 
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Hi,

Concatenation operators like & and || are more universal than concatinate functions and operators probably pre-existed functions.

Ya dance with who brung ya.

Skip,
[sub]
[glasses]Just traded in my old subtlety...
for a NUANCE![tongue][/sub]
 
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I would suspect the & Operator would be quicker (less instructions) than the Concatenate Function

Generally Operators are performed in-line as the operator + does in 3 + 6 = 18.

Functions usually require a Call to the Function
followed by some operation on the argument(s) followed by a Return to the calling code.

I'm not certain that VBA works like this but I suspect it does.


 
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Thank you all for your feedback.

I'm doing a brief training for a collegue and was wondering if there was a neccesary distinction to make.

Guess not. Whatever works.

“Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former.”-Albert Einstein
 
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Why be an expert on a calculating program and be able to calculate yourself?
 
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Simple answer

& is less key strokes that concatenate!

Rgds, Geoff

We could learn a lot from crayons. Some are sharp, some are pretty and some are dull. Some have weird names and all are different colours but they all live in the same box.

Please read FAQ222-2244 before you ask a question
 
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