Tip 65: Using Flash Fill to Combine Data
Tip 64 described how to extract data using the Excel 2013 Flash Fill feature. This tip looks at the other side of Flash Fill: combing data.
If you need to combine the data in two or more columns, you can write a formula that uses the concatenation operator (&). For example, this formula combines the contents of cells A1, B1, and C1:
=A1&B1&C1
For more complicated types of combinations, Flash Fill might be able to do the job and save you the trouble of creating (and debugging) a formula.
Figure 65-1 shows a worksheet with first names in column A and last names in column B. I used Flash Fill to create e-mail addresses (in Column C) for the domain example.com. The e-mail addresses consist of the first initial, an underscore, and the last name — all lowercase.
Figure 65-1: Flash Fill can quickly convert these names into e-mail addresses.
It took only two examples before Flash Fill recognized...