Have you played with the ChatGPT app yet, to get AI help with your writing, or your Excel formulas? Yesterday, I asked it to write Excel TEXTJOIN formula examples, and things didn’t go too well!
Video: Excel TEXTJOIN Examples
One of the newer Excel functions is TEXTJOIN, and I’ve just uploaded a new TEXTJOIN page on my Contextures site, with a several example formulas.
For example, here’s a short video from that page, with my daughter, Sarah, showing how to use TEXTJOIN, with conditions.
Simple TEXTJOIN Formula
And here’s another example from my TEXTJOIN page. It combines all the weekday names from a range of cells, and skips any empty cells.
The weekday names are in a range of cells – A2:A8.
The following formula is in cell D3, and it returns all the days in the list, separated by a comma and space character.
- =TEXTJOIN(“, “,TRUE,A2:A8)
TEXTJOIN Formula Arguments
In the screen shot above, you can see the colour-coded arguments in the TEXTJOIN formula:
- Red: delimiter (separator) is a comma and space — the first argument is “, “
- Green: blank cells will be ignored — the second argument is TRUE
- Purple: items in cells A2:A8 will be combined — third argument is A2:A8
TEXTJOIN Example from ChatGPT
After I finished the new page, I asked ChatGPT to write a few TEXTJOIN examples, and encourage business people to use TEXTJOIN.
Here’s the introduction that is wrote, and I’m sure it makes you want to jump right in, if you haven’t already!
- Hey there, business spreadsheet users! Are you tired of using CONCATENATE or “&” to join multiple cell values into one?
- Look no further than the TEXTJOIN function!
- This function allows you to easily join multiple cell values with a specified delimiter, making your data look neat and organized.
Maybe it’s overly enthusiastic, but we were off to a good start, I thought.
ChatGPT TEXTJOIN Example Formula
After that, ChatGPT gave the 3 example formulas that I asked for. Oddly, all 3 had the same formula, except for a different delimiter in each formula:
- =TEXTJOIN(“, “, TRUE, A1:A5, B1:B5)
However, the three data examples were different, and were business related, as I had requested..
Data Example 1 – Products and Prices
Here’s the setup that ChatGPT wrote for the first example:
- Imagine you have a list of product names in one column and their corresponding prices in another.
- You can use the TEXTJOIN function to combine these two columns into one, separated by a comma and a space.
I put that formula in cell A7, and wrapped the text, so it’s easier to read.
Would you ever want this type of result from a TEXTJOIN formula?
Better TEXTJOIN Formulas
Instead of a string of product names, followed by a string of prices, it might be better to have a formula in each row.
For example, in cell C1, use this formula to combine the product name and price. Then, copy that formula down to cell C5
- =TEXTJOIN(“, “,TRUE,A1:B1)
Or, use the following formula, in cell A7, to list each product, immediately followed by its price.
I put that formula in cell A7, and wrapped the text, so it’s easier to read.
- =TEXTJOIN(“, “, TRUE, A1:B5)
More TEXTJOIN Examples
The other two formula examples from ChatGPT had the same data setup, and formula. Only the data details were different.
Example 2 – Mailing List
- Let’s say you have a list of employee names in one column and their email addresses in another. You can use the TEXTJOIN function to create a professional-looking email list by joining the two columns with the “; ” delimiter.
- The formula would be =TEXTJOIN(“; “, TRUE, A1:A5, B1:B5)
Example 3 – Event Dates
- In another scenario, you have a list of dates in one column and corresponding events in another column. You can use the TEXTJOIN function to create a calendar view by joining the two columns with the ” – ” delimiter.
- The formula would be =TEXTJOIN(” – “, TRUE, A1:A5, B1:B5)
Final Word from ChatGPT
Just in case those ChatGPT formulas haven’t convinced you to give TEXTJOIN a try, here’s the final paragraph from its “sales pitch”.
- As you can see, the TEXTJOIN function is a versatile tool that can help you create clean and organized data.
- Give it a try and let me know how it works for you!
Did that sales pitch work? Are you ready to get started with TEXTJOIN? 
Anyway, rumours say that ChatGPT could eventually be built into the Microsoft Office programs, to help us with our daily work. Are you looking forward to that?
Based on my few weeks of testing, it’s off to a good start, but will need improvements, and lots of careful checking, before we can hand over our important spreadsheet tasks!
Get More TEXTJOIN Examples
If you’d like to see more TEXTJOIN examples, written by me, and not by ChatGPT, go to the TEXTJOIN Function examples page on my Contextures site.
There are example formulas, videos, and Excel files to download.
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Excel TEXTJOIN Function Bad Examples from ChatGPT
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