How to combine text and dates in the same cell

If you want to display both text and date data in one cell, you’ll need to include an extra formatting step. See how to use the TEXT function to get the desired results.

Excel does not normally let you combine text and dates together in the same cell. For example, suppose you have entered the formulas shown in Figure A.

Figure A

Figure B shows the results.

Figure B

While the value in A2 displayed correctly, the value in A1 did not. This is because Excel displays the actual date data entered into the cell until it’s formatted. Thus, to show the data in A1 as a true date, we need add the TEXT function to change the format to text. When we replace the formula in B1 with

="Today is"&" "&TEXT(A1,"MM/DD/YYYY")

we get the results shown in Figure C.

Figure C

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