Cell merging in Google Sheets is a good way to combine data from multiple cells in a spreadsheet. You can merge cells between rows or columns, but you’ll have to be careful to do it in a way that you don’t lose data.
If you don’t know how to merge cells in Google Sheets, you can follow the steps below.
Before merging cells in Google Sheets
Before you start merging your data in Google Sheets, you have to be aware of one of the biggest limitations. When you merge cells in Google Sheets, only the data in the topmost cell is saved. All other data is lost and cannot be recovered without undoing the change.
If you are trying to merge data from multiple cells, you cannot use the default cell merge tool. Instead, you should use the function CONCATENATE to combine the data
How to merge cells in Google Sheets
You can easily merge your cells in Google Sheets using the format menu Hello toolbar.
To merge cells in Google Sheets from the format menu:
- open your Google Sheets spreadsheet.
- Select with the mouse the cells you want to merge.
- From the menu, select Format > Merge Cells.
- Select combine all, Merge vertically either Merge horizontally.
To merge cells in Google Sheets from the toolbar:
- open your Google Sheets spreadsheet.
- Select your cells.
- Press the icon merge cells to merge all cells or tap the down arrow icon next to it.
- If you press the down arrow, select Merge vertically either Merge horizontallyaccording to your preference.
Once you have merged the cells, the cell size will appear larger and will take the merged position of the previous cells.
How to undo or unmerge cells in Google Sheets
If you’ve merged cells in Google Sheets, you can easily unmerge them later. You won’t be able to recover lost data, but you can restore individual cells for reuse.
To unmerge cells in Google Sheets:
- open your Google Sheets spreadsheet.
- Select the merged cell.
- press the button merge cells from the toolbar.
- Alternatively, press Format > Merge Cells > Unmerge Cells.
How to Merge Cell Data in Google Sheets
In Google Sheets, you can’t merge cells without losing data in some of them: data in one cell replaces the rest. If you want to combine data from multiple cells, you can do it manually or use a function like CONCATENATE to merge the data into a new cell.
CONCATENATE works by combining the data in the cells and converting it to a combined text string. It doesn’t combine the numbers by adding them, but simply puts them together. For example, if B1 contained the value 1 and B2 contained the value 2, a CONCATENATE formula that combined these cell values would return the result 12 and not 3.
For non-numeric values, CONCATENATE works the same way. If B1 contains a word (one) and B2 contains another word (two), CONCATENATE will return the words together (one-two). You would have to format the original cells to make sure there are spaces or use ampersands (&) with empty strings (» «) to add a space.
To use CONCATENATE to merge cell data in Google Sheets:
- open your Google Sheets spreadsheet.
- Select a new cell and then the formula bar.
- To use CONCATENATE, type =CONCATENATE( in the formula bar and add the values of the cells or a range of cells. For example, =CONCATENATE(A2,B2).
- If you want to add spaces between cells, use an ampersand with an empty string. eg =CONCATENATE(A3&” “&B3).
Making changes in Google Sheets
With our guide above, you should be able to quickly merge or unmerge cells in Google Sheets. This is just one of the ways you can make changes to your Google Sheets spreadsheet, allowing you to manipulate and analyze your data in different ways.
