I have a list of words and phrases in excel - in 1 column - How do I put a comma in between each value?

Question

I want to put a comma between each phrase and put them all on one line...is this even possible??

Answer 1

Let's say your words/phrases are in A1, A2, etc

in B1 insert the formula =A1

in B2 insert the formula =B1&","&A2

drag the formula in B2 all the way down and the result will have all on the same line

!! BUT YOU'RE PROBABLY NOT DONE !!

the last cell is an equation, you want a value SO....

COPY the cell that has your all the items

RIGHT CLICK on a cell (I usually do the last cell with all the data), click "Paste Special..." and select Value.

Now you have all your data in one line!

here is what it would look like:

colA....colB...................equatio... in B

BO......BO.....................=A1

RO......BO,RO...............=B1&","&A2

OR......BO,RO,OR.........=B2&","&A3

OB......BO,RO,OR,OB...=B3&","&A4

it's easy and you pretty much just need those two equations, and the pasting of values

Answer 2

depending on exactly how your data is laid out, and how many you have, it can be done fairly easily.

if you have JOE in A1 and BOB in A2 you can combine them, with a comma between by doing

=A1&", "&A2

this will give you "JOE, BOB"

you could just keep expanding that formula as long as you need to.  But if you've got a list of hundreds of items, it's going to be pretty tedious typing the long of formula.

but you could break it down into smaller parts, then combine those smaller parts in large parts until you have them all completed into one long string.

for example in B1 enter

=A1&", "&A2

then in B2 enter

=A3&", "&A4

etc.

then in C1 enter

=B1&", "&B2

which would combine B1&B2 (which are a combo of A1, A2, A3, & A4