XL: Visual Basic Macro to Concatenate Columns of Data

• Microsoft Excel 98 Macintosh Edition
• Microsoft Excel 97 for Windows
• Microsoft Excel for Windows 95, versions 7.0, 7.0a
• Microsoft Excel for Windows, versions 5.0, 5.0c
• Microsoft Excel for the Macintosh, versions 5.0, 5.0a

SUMMARY

In Microsoft Excel, you can use a macro to concatenate the data in two adjacent columns and display the result in the column to the right of the columns that contain your data. This article contains a sample Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications macro (Sub procedure) to accomplish this.

MORE INFORMATION

Microsoft provides programming examples for illustration only, without warranty either expressed or implied, including, but not limited to, the implied warranties of merchantability and/or fitness for a particular purpose. This article assumes that you are familiar with the programming language being demonstrated and the tools used to create and debug procedures. Microsoft support engineers can help explain the functionality of a particular procedure, but they will not modify these examples to provide added functionality or construct procedures to meet your specific needs. If you have limited programming experience, you may want to contact the Microsoft fee-based consulting line at (800) 936-5200. For more information about the support options available from Microsoft, please see the following page on the World Wide Web:

   http://www.microsoft.com/support/supportnet/refguide/default.asp

Sample Visual Basic Procedure

   Sub ConcatColumns()

      Do While ActiveCell <> ""  'Loops until the active cell is blank.

         'The "&" must have a space on both sides or it will be
         'treated as a variable type of long integer. Enter the following
         'two lines as a single line.

         ActiveCell.Offset(0, 1).FormulaR1C1 = _
            ActiveCell.Offset(0, -1) & " " & ActiveCell.Offset(0, 0)

         ActiveCell.Offset(1, 0).Select
      Loop

   End Sub

To Use the Macro in Microsoft Excel 97 or Microsoft Excel 98

1. Open the workbook which contains the data.

2. Press ALT+F11 to activate the Visual Basic Editor.

3. Click Module on the Insert menu to insert a module. Type the macro above in the module's code window.

4. Click Close and Return to Microsoft Excel on the File menu.

5. Select the worksheet that contains the data that you want to concatenate.

6. Click the top cell in the right-hand column of data that you want to concatenate. For example, if cells A1:A100 and B1:B100 contain data, click cell B1.

7. Point to Macros on the Tools menu and click Macro. Select the ConcatColumns macro, and click Run.

To Use the Macro in Microsoft Excel 5.0 or 7.0

1. Open the workbook which contains the data.

2. Point to Macro on the Insert menu and click Module to insert a Visual Basic module in the workbook. Type the macro above on the module sheet.

3. Select the worksheet that contains the data that you want to concatenate.

4. Click the top cell in the right-hand column of data that you want to concatenate. For example, if cells A1:A100 and B1:B100 contain data, click cell B1.

5. On the Tools menu, click Macro, click the ConcatColumns macro, and click Run.

REFERENCES

For additional information about getting help with Visual Basic for Applications, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

   ARTICLE-ID: Q163435
   TITLE     : VBA: Programming Resources for Visual Basic for
               Applications