How Do I Add Text To A Row or Column of Data in Excel or Google Sheets [Video]

Suddenly need to append a text label to a whole lot of spreadsheet data? You don’t have to do so manually — it’s pretty easy to add text with a simple formula in your spreadsheet app of choice.

How Do I? covers the basics, because we’ve all got to start somewhere.

Don’t want video? That’s fine, the process is pretty simple.

Let’s say you have a column of text and you realise that you forgot to add in a crucial detail. In the example video above, I have a row of data reading “Frog” and I want to add “Green Tree” to the front of it. Here’s how to do so.

Select a cell without data in in.
Add a formula by typing =concat(“Green Tree “,
After the comma, click into the cell that has the text you want to add text to — in my example above it was cell A2, but yours may vary.
That should add to your formula, so you end up with the formula =concat(“Green Tree “,A2. Add a close bracket to finish the formula and hit enter.
You should end up with a cell that now reads “Green Tree Frog”… but it’s not where you want those words to be. Not to worry! Firstly, copy (by dragging down is the easiest) that formula down or across to cover the number of cells you want to append to. Then copy those cells (CTRL+C on the keyboard).
Select your original cells, but don’t paste (CTRL+V).
Choose Edit/Paste Special and choose “Values”. That should then copy “Green Tree Frog” over each of those cells. You can then delete the original formula cells (which by now will read “Green Tree Green Tree Frog”, because it’s still reading from those original cells), and the job is done!

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