How to merge cells in google sheets

Watch Video – Merge Cells In Google Sheets

In some cases, you would have a need to merge some cells and combine these together to make one single cell. These could be either merging cells in rows or columns (or both).

One practical example of this is when you have a header that has is the same for multiple columns and you need to merge the cells to make the header look like one (as shown below).

In this tutorial, I will show you how to merge cells in Google Sheets (horizontally as well as vertically).

I will also cover some additional things you need to take care of when merging cells in Google Sheets.

So let’s get started!

Table of Contents

How to Merge Cells In Google Sheets

Suppose you have the dataset as shown below and you want to merge ṭhe header row that has the text “Store #”.

Below are the steps to merge these cells:

1. Select the cells that you want to merge
2. Click the Format option in the menu
3. Click on Merge cells option
4. In the options that appear, click on ‘Merge horizontally’

The above steps would merge the three cells and make them one.

Another way to access the merge options is thorough the toolbar. When you click on the ‘Merge cells’ icon, it will merge all the cells. And if you click on the drop-down icon next to it. it will show other options such as merge horizontally or vertically

Different Types of Merge Option in Google Sheets

If you followed the steps above, you would have already noticed that there are the following types of merge options:

• Merge all
• Merge horizontally
• Merge vertically

Let me quickly explain each of these options.

Merge all

When you use the ‘Merge all’ option, it will merge all the cells and you will get the result which is one big merged cell (as shown below).

Note that this option only becomes available when you have selected a contiguous range of cells. If you select a non-contiguous range of cells, you would notice that this option is grayed out.

Merge horizontally

When you select more than one row and use this option, cells in each row would be merged (as shown below).

In case you have only selected the cells in one row, then Merge all and Merge horizontally would do the same thing.

Merge vertically

When you select more than one column and use this option, cells in each column would be merged (as shown below):

In case you have only selected one column, then ‘Merge vertically’ and ‘Merge all’ would do the same thing.

Issues when merging cell in Google Sheets

While using merged cells, there are a few things you need to know.

Can’t Sort Columns with Merged Cells

The first issue with merge cells is ṭhat you can not sort a column that has merged cells.

If you try and do that, it will give you an error as shown below.

Copies merged cells and not the value

If you have three cells merged together with some text in it and you copy and paste this somewhere else in the worksheet, the result would be merged cells (with the same text and formatting).

In case you only want to copy and paste the content of the merged cells and not get the result which itself are merged cells, you need to copy and then paste as value.

So there are few issues you need to keep in mind when working with merged cells in Google Sheets.

And in case you need to unmerge cells, you can easily do that. Simply select the cells that are merged, go to the Format –> Merged cells and then click on Unmerge.

So this is how you can easily merge cells in Google Sheets.

I hope you found this tutorial useful!

Other Google Sheets tutorials you may find useful:

@bradyjgavin
Nov 12, 2019, 11:23 am EST | 1 min read

Merging cells in Google Sheets is a great way to keep your spreadsheet well-organized and easy to understand. The most common use is for headers to identify content across multiple columns, but regardless of the reason, it’s a simple process.

Fire up your browser and head to the Google Sheets home page. Once there, open up a spreadsheet that contains data that needs merging. Highlight the cells you want to merge.

Next, click Format > Merge cells and then choose one of the three options to merge the cells:

• Merge All: Merges all the cells into one cell that spans the entirety of the selection, horizontally and vertically.
• Merge Horizontally: Merges the selected cells into a row of the selected cells.
• Merge Vertically: Merges the selected cells into a column of the selected cells.

Merge Cells, and then click on a format for the cells.” width=”650″ height=”545″ src=” onload=”pagespeed.lazyLoadImages.loadIfVisibleAndMaybeBeacon(this);” onerror=”this.onerror=null;pagespeed.lazyLoadImages.loadIfVisibleAndMaybeBeacon(this);”/>

Depending on the direction the cells are positioned, you might not be able to merge horizontally/vertically. For our example, because we want to merge four horizontal cells, we can’t merge them vertically.

A prompt will appear if you have data in all the cells you’re trying to merge, notifying you that only the content in the leftmost cell will remain after you merge the cells. The contents of all the other cells are deleted in the process. Click “OK” to proceed.

After you select the type of cell merging you want, all of the cells will combine into one big cell. If you have data in the first cell, it will occupy the entirety of the merged cell.

Now you can format the text/data in the cell however you want. Because our merged cell is a title for the four columns below it, we’ll center align it overtop all of them. Click the Align icon in the toolbar and then click “Center.”

If you want to unmerge the cells, the process is just as simple. Select the cell, click Format > Merge Cells, and then choose “Unmerge.”

Merge cells > Unmerge.” width=”650″ height=”336″ src=” onload=”pagespeed.lazyLoadImages.loadIfVisibleAndMaybeBeacon(this);” onerror=”this.onerror=null;pagespeed.lazyLoadImages.loadIfVisibleAndMaybeBeacon(this);”/>

If the cells you previously merged all contained information in them, none of the data that was previously there will be preserved.

That’s it. You’ve successfully merged the cells in your spreadsheet.

Use these steps to merge cells in Google Sheets.

Sign into Google Drive and open your Sheets file.

Visit to view your Google Drive files.

Select the cells to merge.

You can click and hold your mouse button on the first cell then drag to select the rest of the cells.

Click the arrow to the right of the “Merge cells” button in the toolbar.

It’s the button that looks like a square with two arrows inside of it.

Choose the desired type of merge from the dropdown menu.

The available options are “Merge all,” “Merge horizontally,” and “Merge vertically.”

You can continue below to see these steps with pictures, as well as additional information.

There are a very large number of ways that someone might need to create a spreadsheet, and it is very likely that the default layout of a spreadsheet is not ideal for your needs. While there are many ways that you can customize the spreadsheet layout in Google Sheets, a common change is to merge several cells into one. This can help you to achieve the appearance that you need for your data.

Learning how to merge cells in Google Sheets is similar to how you might merge cells in Excel. You will be able to select the cells that you want to merge together, and you can choose from one of several different options to complete that merge.

The first section of this article will discuss merging cells in a Google Sheets spreadsheet. You can click here to jump to the last section of this article that will show you how to merge cells in a Google Docs table instead.

How to Combine Cells in a Google Drive Spreadsheet

The steps in this guide were performed in a spreadsheet using the Google Sheets application. Depending upon the number of cells that you select to merge, you will have a couple of options. These options are:

• Merge All – all of the highlighted cells will be merged into one large cell
• Merge Horizontal – all of the highlighted cells will be merged on their rows. This option will result in a number of cells equal to the number of rows that were included in your merge selection.
• Merge Vertical – all of the highlighted cells will be merge on their columns. This option will result in a number of cells equal to the number of columns that were included in your merge selection.

Step 1: Open your Google Sheets spreadsheet. You can find your spreadsheets in Google Drive at

Step 2: Select the cells that you wish to merge.

Step 2: Click the Merge button in the toolbar, then select the merge option that best meets your needs.

In the example above, selecting each of the merge options would result in the following merges –

If you don’t like the result of your cell merge, you can either click Edit at the top of the window and select the Undo option, or you can click the Merge button again and select the Unmerge option.

How to Merge Cells in a Google Docs Table

The method above will let you merge cells in Google Sheets, but you may find yourself working in a table in Google Docs instead. You can follow the steps below to merge cells there.

Step 1: Open your Google Docs file containing the table.

Step 2: Click inside the first cell that you wish to merge, then hold down your mouse button and select the rest of the cells to merge.

Step 3: Right-click on one of the selected cells, then choose the Merge cells option.

How to Merge Cells in Microsoft Excel

While the method for merging cells in Google spreadsheets is slightly different from the method for doing so in Excel, they are pretty similar.

Step 1: Open your Excel spreadsheet.

Step 2: Use your mouse to select the cells that you wish to merge.

Step 3: Click the Home button at the top of the window.

Step 4: Click the Merge & Center button in the Alignment section of the ribbon, then choose the preferred merge option.

More Information on Merging Cells in Google Sheets

• Using the above methods to merge cells in Google Apps and Microsoft Excel will combine both the cells themselves and the data contained within them. You can use something called the Concatenate formula in Excel if you only wish to merge the data from the cells. Find out more about concatenate here.
• The merge options in Google Sheets can be applied to entire rows and columns as well. For example, if you selected column A and column B in your spreadsheet, then you clicked the Merge icon and selected the Merge horizontally option, Sheets would automatically merge across every row in those columns and leave you with an entire new column of individual cells that spanned two columns.

Depending on your document needs, you might find that your data is best communicated in a table in Google Docs instead of Google Sheets. You can format Google Docs tables in several ways, including the vertical alignment of the data in those tables. Using options like that can help you to give your table the appearance it requires.

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Google Sheets and Microsoft Excel are the two leading programs that are used for data entry for personal and for business purposes. Both the programs have pretty similar features to help their users ease their daily working with the data they enter. However, the processes, the tabs and other methods to access these functions might be slightly different if compared with one another. For instance, if you want to merge a few cells together and want the text to be centralized for these merged cells, the steps are slightly different for both Microsoft Excel and Google Sheets.

Let’s learn how to merge cells on both the softwares.

How to Merge Cells on Google Sheets

1. Open your Google Sheets. You can always start from scratch, or even work on an already existing file as the functions or features for this can be implemented on the cells even if they have data in them.

Open Google Sheets to an already existing file or a new one.

1. When you need to merge cells, it does not necessarily have to be the first rows or columns. Anybody can find the need to merge any cells anywhere on the sheets. As an example, I used the first row to type the heading, that is, Google Sheets, and let the rest of the cells be empty. There are two ways to go about this. You either type down the heading in the first cell out of all the cells that you want to merge or, you can merge all the cells first and then add the heading to the merged cells. Either way, you will have to adjust the center for the heading in Google Sheets.

Select the cells you want to merge. You can use the cursor to click and select all the cells, or use the keyboards shift key and select the first and the last cell to select all the cells in between.

I wrote the heading first and then merged my cells. So for this, I selected all the cells after typing in the heading.

1. On the top toolbar for Google Sheets, you will find a tab for merge which looks something like two square brackets and arrows in the center. Look at the image below to know what exactly the tab for Merge cells looks like on Google Sheets.

Locate the Merge tab

1. Click on the downward facing arrow on this tab to see more options for merge cells.

Click on the option most suitable for the merge

Click on the option as per your requirements. I clicked on Merge all. Even if I clicked the option for ‘merge horizontally’, I would have received the same output because I had selected only rows for merging.

1. Clicking on one of these options will instantly merge the cells. However, the text in the cell will not align to the center automatically.

The cells have been merged

1. To align to center, the text in the merged cells on Google Sheets, select the merged cells. And click on the tab which is right next to the merge cells tab. Select the merged cell to align text to center

This will show you three options for alignment. To center any text on sheets, you will click on the one that is in the center.

@bsovvy
Dec 23, 2019, 10:24 am EST | 3 min read

In Google Sheets, if you want to link data from multiple cells together, you don’t have to merge them. You can use the CONCAT, CONCATENATE, and JOIN functions to combine them in one cell.

These functions range from the simplistic (CONCAT) to the complex (JOIN). CONCATENATE offers the most flexibility, as it allows you to manipulate the linked data with operators and additional content.

How to Use the CONCAT Function

You can use the CONCAT function to combine the data from two cells, but it has limitations. First, you can only link two cells, and it doesn’t support operators to configure how to display the linked data.

To use CONCAT, open your Google Sheets spreadsheet and click an empty cell. Type =CONCAT(CellA,CellB) , but replace CellA and CellB with your specific cell references.

In the example below, CONCAT combines text and numeric values.

The text from cells A6 and B6 (“Welcome” and ” To”, including the space at the start of the B6 cell) are shown together in cell A9. In cell A10, the two numeric values from cells B1 and C1 are shown together.

While CONCAT will combine two cells, it doesn’t allow you to do much else with the data. If you want to combine more than two cells—or modify how the data is presented after you combine them—you can use CONCATENATE instead.

How to Use the CONCATENATE Function

The CONCATENATE function is more complex than CONCAT. It offers more flexibility for those who want to combine cell data in different formats. For example, CONCAT doesn’t allow you to add additional text or spaces, but CONCATENATE does.

To use CONCATENATE, open your Google Sheets spreadsheet and click an empty cell. You can use CONCATENATE in several ways.

To link two or more cells in a basic way (similar to CONCAT), type =CONCATENATE(CellA,CellB) or =CONCATENATE(CellA&CellB) , and replace CellA and CellB with your specific cell references.

If you want to combine an entire cell range, type =CONCATENATE(A:C) , and replace A:C with your specific range.

The ampersand (&) operator allows you to link cells in a more flexible way than CONCAT. You can use it to add additional text or spaces alongside your linked cell data.

In the example below, the text in cells A6 to D6 has no spaces. Because we used the standard CONCATENATE function without the ampersand, the text is displayed in cell C9 as one word.

To add spaces, you can use an empty text string (“”) between your cell references. To do this using CONCATENATE, type =CONCATENATE(CellA&” “&CellB&” “&CellC&” “&CellD) , and replace the cell references with yours.

If you want to add additional text to your combined cell, include it in your text string. For example, if you type =CONCATENATE(CellA&” “&CellB&” Text”) , it combines two cells with spaces between them and adds “Text” at the end.

As shown in the example below, you can use CONCATENATE to combine cells with text and numeric values, as well as add your own text to the combined cell. If you’re only combining cells with text values, you can use the JOIN function instead.

How to Use the JOIN Function

If you need to combine large arrays of data in a spreadsheet, JOIN is the best function to use. For example, JOIN would be ideal if you need to combine postal addresses that are in separate columns into a single cell.

The benefit of using JOIN is that, unlike CONCAT or CONCATENATE, you can specify a delimiter, like a comma or space, to be placed automatically after each cell in your combined single cell.

To use it, click an empty cell, type =JOIN(“,”,range) , and replace range with your chosen cell range. This example adds a comma after each cell. You can also use a semicolon, space, dash, or even another letter as your delimiter if you prefer.

In the example below, we used JOIN to combine text and numeric values. In A9, the array from A6 through D6 is merged using a simple cell range (A6:D6) with a space to separate each cell.

In D10, a similar array from A2 to D2 combines text and numeric values from those cells using JOIN with a comma to separate them.

You can use JOIN to combine multiple arrays, too. To do so, type =JOIN(” “,A2:D2,B2:D2) , and replace the ranges and delimiter with yours.

In the example below, cell ranges A2 to D2, and A3 to D3 are joined with a comma separating each cell.

How to Align and Merge Cells in Google Sheets

Using the alignment options makes it easier to read the text and data in a spreadsheet.

Change Horizontal Alignment

1. Select a cell or cell range.
2. Click the Horizontal align button
3. Select an alignment option.

Change Vertical Alignment

You can also change a cell’s vertical alignment.

1. Select a cell or cell range.
2. Click the Vertical align button.
3. Select an alignment option.

Wrap Text

You can also control how text wraps if the cell isn’t wide enough to display it all.

1. Select a cell or cell range.
2. Click the Text wrapping button.

There are three ways that text can wrap in a cell:

• The first is for the text to overflow into the next cell.
• You can also choose to wrap text into a second line.
• Or, to just clip the text off at the cell border.

Select a text wrapping option.

The text in the cell wraps around to a new line.

Merge Cells

You can also merge several cells together to display text across multiple columns or rows.

The selected cells and merged into a single cell.

Unmerge Cells

If you need to separate the cells again, unmerging them works the same way.

Select the merged cell.

When the merged cell is selected, the Merge Cells button on the toolbar will be active.

Click the Merge cells button.

Among the cool formatting options available on spreadsheet programs, one of them is the ability to merge multiple cells, so that you can use the complete space of all the merged cells to enter some information without affecting the alignment of the corresponding cells in the same horizontal or vertical line. Apart from the horizontal and vertical merging of cells, you can even merge all the cells completely for your specific requirements, especially for writing or entering long information within the cell. When it comes to Microsoft Excel, you can easily merge multiple cells by going to the ‘ Format Cells… ’ option, however, it is slightly different on Google Sheets.

It is almost a year now that I am using Google Sheets for all my requirements associated with spreadsheets, and sometimes I also need to merge multiple cells for different requirements. The ability to merge cells vertically and horizontally is available on Google Sheets, however, you can even do it manually on Microsoft Excel by selecting the cells that you want to merge, individually. The process of merging multiple cells on Google sheets is not complicated, but you should know the exact way of doing it.

So, show without any further delay, let’s get started with how you can merge multiple cells on Google sheets.

Merging cells in Google Sheets

Step 1: Open Google Sheets , create a new sheet in the usual way and select the cells that you want to merge.

Step 2: Now, click on ‘Format’ , and choose the type of merging that you want to do, under the ‘ Merge Cells ’ menu.

If you choose ‘ Merge horizontally ’, all the cells that belong to the same row, within the selection, will be merged. With ‘ Merge vertically ’, all the cells that belong to the same column within the selected range of cells will be merged. The last option, which should, however, be on the top, will merge all the selected cells, and it is self-explanatory.

Just select ‘Unmerge’ by selecting all the cells, and they will be immediately unmerged, no matter, which way you merged them together.

After you unmerge the cells, the information within the cell, if any, will move to the top-most, left-most, or top left-most cells within the selection for horizontal, vertical, and merging all cells respectively.

However, if you merge the cells, and you merge all the cells together, the information within the top left-most cell will retain, and in case of horizontal and vertical merging, only the information on the left-most and top-most cell will remain. The other will be deleted, and this is something you should remember.

So, that was all about, how you can merge multiple cells on Google Sheets. Do you have any questions? Feel free to comment on the same below.

Most spreadsheet apps let you merge cells — to combine two or more cells into one larger cell — and Google Sheets is no exception.

There are many reasons why you might do this, but a common use of merging cells is to create a title that needs to span multiple columns.

You aren’t limited to merging cells horizontally, though: You can combine them vertically, or both horizontally and vertically to turn a block of cells into a single entity.

Here’s how to do it on your computer or mobile device.

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How to merge cells in Google Sheets on desktop

1. Open a spreadsheet in Google Sheets in a web browser.

2. Select two or more cells that you want to merge.

3. Click “Format” in the menu bar.

4. In the drop-down menu, click “Merge,” and then click the kind of cell merge you want – Merge Horizontally, Merge Vertically, or Merge All. Depending upon the cells you selected, you may not have all these options.

If you prefer, there’s also a Merge button in the toolbar between the Borders and Alignment buttons. It does the same thing, and may be faster than using the menu.

How to merge cells in Google Sheets on mobile

You can also merge cells if you’re editing a spreadsheet using the Google Sheets mobile app on your iPhone or Android phone.

1. Open the Google Sheets app and create a new spreadsheet.

2. Tap to select two or more cells that you want to merge.

3. In the toolbar at the bottom of the screen, the Merge button should automatically appear. Tap it. It’ll automatically merge all the selected cells.

In this tutorial, you’ll learn how to merge cells in Google Sheets, when to use merged cells in Google Sheets, the pros and cons of using merged cells, and finally, how to identify them with Apps Script.

How To Merge Cells In Google Sheets

There are two ways to merge cells in Google Sheets, through :

1. the Format menu, or
2. the quick access button on the toolbar

Here’s how you access items (1) and (2) through the menu and toolbar:

(Ok, there is a 3rd way. We’ll look at merged cells with Apps Script at the bottom of this article.)

There are three different types of merge action you can perform on cells:

Horizontal Merge

Merge across rows of cells using the horizontal merge option “Merge horizontally“:

Vertical Merge

Merge down columns of cells using the vertical merge option “Merge vertically“:

How To Combine Cells In Google Sheets With A Full Merge

If you want to merge all the cells in your range into one single cell, use the “Merge all” option:

How To Unmerge Cells In Google Sheets

This one is super easy!

Highlight the merged cells, and choose Format > Merge cells > Unmerge from the menu or Unmerge in the quick access toolbar.

What happens to cell content when cells get merged?

The value in the top-left cell of the merge range takes precedent and overwrites any other data in the range you’re merging.

You’ll see the following warning popup if you try to merge non-empty cells:

If you click OK, the data in the top-left cell remains but any other data is deleted.

In this example, the data in cell B1 disappears when we merge the cells.

There is no value in cell B1 anymore. The formula placed in E1, pointing to B1, now returns a null value (empty).

Should You Use Merged Cells?

Merged cells divide opinion in the spreadsheet world, perhaps more than any other feature.

They’re easy to apply, but they must be used with caution.

Yes, they’re useful in specific situations as you’ll seen in this article, but they will cause trouble if used incorrectly.

The golden rules with merged cells are:

• Use them for formatting only
• Never use merged cells to store data in your datasets

Avoiding merged cells in datasets is one of the best practices for working with data in Google Sheets.

They cause issues because they break the cardinal rule of each piece of data existing in its own cell. Which range does the merged cell belong to? They can cause issues with formulas and pivot tables, or when you sort, copy/paste, or move data.

Consider this example, where a dataset includes a merged cell:

Notice how the formula in columns B looks as if it sums 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 (which is 10) but gives the answer 6.

That’s because of the merged cell on row 4. The value 4 is actually included in column A and not in column B. B4 is null (i.e. an empty cell):

If you takeaway nothing else from this article, please never use merged cells in your data analysis.

With that caveat out the way, when do we use them?

When To Use Merge Cells In Google Sheets

Use merged cells to create text cells that span multiple columns or multiple rows.

The most common use case is to showcase a title that applies across the top of your document:

Similarly, you might merge cells along the top and sides of a table to add context. See row 1 and column A in this example:

Merged cells are a useful tool to have in your tool-belt if you create customized front-ends for your Sheets, so they don’t look like plain spreadsheets.

For example, consider this custom header for a Facebook Ads dashboard, where the range L2:S4 has been merged:

Finding Merged Cells In Your Google Sheet using Apps Script

(If you’re new to Apps Script, check out my tutorial Google Apps Script: A Beginner’s Guide)

Merged cells can be hard to see sometimes, especially in larger or more complex Sheets.

You can use Apps Script to build a tool to highlight them for you.

Here’s a simple implementation:

Using the getMergedRanges() method will find all instances of merged cells in your Sheets.

Here’s a simple script to identify them:

This tool can be extended easily to cover all the sheets within a single Google Sheet file and add an option to unhighlight the merged cells.

Merging Cells With Apps Script

You can use Apps Script to not only find merged cells but also to actually merge cells in your Sheets.

Use the merge(), mergeAcross() and mergeVertically() methods to programmatically merge cells in Google Sheets.