How do I combine the first character of a cell with another cell in Excel?

excel excel-formula
James May picture James May · Feb 10, 2009 · Viewed 420.2k times · Source

I have an Excel sheet with first names in Column A and surnames in Column B. I want to create a third Column C that contains the first character from the first name and adds it to the surname, creating first initial + surname.

First Name    Last Name    Combined Name
John          Smith        jsmith

How can I do this using Excel?

Answer

Ian Jacobs picture Ian Jacobs · Feb 10, 2009 
=CONCATENATE(LEFT(A1,1), B1)

Assuming A1 holds 1st names; B1 Last names

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