Converting "fake" text to numbersBy default, Excel aligns numbers to the right and text to the left. If the result still looks like text, you need to change the cell's number format. Joining text: Why TEXTJOIN beats the ampersandThe old-school way to combine text in Excel was the ampersand (&):=[@First]&" "&[@Last]Related The Ultimate Glossary of Microsoft Excel Symbols You don't truly understand Excel until you know its symbols. The more robust solution in Excel for Microsoft 365, Excel for the web, or Excel 2019 and later is the TEXTJOIN function. It allows you to set the delimiter once and, crucially, includes a setting to ignore empty cells:Subscribe for cleaner Excel text: practical tips Want cleaner spreadsheets?