Excel: CONCATENATE vs. multiple &'s 5

[herkiefan]

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

 

[fneily]

Habit. Personal likes. Documentation. I know three ways to do Bold. Which one is right? All.

 

[AnotherHiggins]

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]

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[mintjulep]

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.

 

[SkipVought]

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]
Just traded in my old subtlety...
for a NUANCE![/sub]

 

[mscallisto]

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.

 

[mintjulep]

3 + 6 = 18?

 

[herkiefan]

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

 

[mscallisto]

Yea there's a bug in my Brain(function)!!!

 

[lionelhill]

Why be an expert on a calculating program and be able to calculate yourself?

 

[xlbo]

Simple answer

& is less key strokes that concatenate!

Rgds, Geoff

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