CONCAT
Quirk foundCategory: Text · Last tested 2026-09-01
Real compatibility results for the CONCAT function: executed in Excel for the web, Google Sheets and LibreOffice Calc, with desktop Excel behavior from Microsoft’s official documentation (we do not run desktop Excel — Excel for the web is a different application and is executed separately). Syntax and links to that documentation are below.
Support matrix
| Engine | Documented | Live-tested | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|
| Excel (desktop) | Yes | No — documented only | n/a |
| Excel for the web | — | Yes (recalc, 2026-09-01) | Supported, behaves as documented |
| Google Sheets | Yes | Yes (Drive import, 2026-08-29) | Quirk found |
| LibreOffice Calc | Yes | Yes (25.8.7.3, 2026-07-29) | Supported, behaves as documented |
LibreOffice version history
We executed the same test cases under each LibreOffice release to show exactly when CONCAT’s support changed — not documentation claims, real results.
| LibreOffice version | Verdict | Tested |
|---|---|---|
| 24.2.0.3 | Supported, behaves as documented | 2026-08-29 |
| 24.8.7.2 | Supported, behaves as documented | 2026-08-29 |
| 25.2.0.3 | Supported, behaves as documented | 2026-08-29 |
| 25.8.7.3 | Supported, behaves as documented | 2026-07-29 |
Why isn’t CONCAT working in Google Sheets?
CONCAT runs in Google Sheets, but our executed cases show it does not match
Excel’s documented behavior on every input (the failing cases are listed on this page). If a
formula that behaves one way in Excel gives you a different answer in Sheets, compare your usage
against those cases before assuming your data is wrong.
Discovered quirks
-
=CONCAT("a","b","c") on
Google Sheets returned
#N/A, but the documented/expected
result is abc.
Provenance
MISMATCH vs expected: expected 'abc', got '#N/A'
-
=CONCAT(A1:A3) on
Google Sheets returned
#N/A, but the documented/expected
result is xyz.
Provenance
MISMATCH vs expected: expected 'xyz', got '#N/A'
-
=CONCAT(A1:B2) on
Google Sheets returned
#N/A, but the documented/expected
result is abcd.
Provenance
MISMATCH vs expected: expected 'abcd', got '#N/A'
Executed test cases
Excel for the web (executed 2026-09-01 via OneDrive recalculation)
These values come from Excel for the web, not from desktop Excel. They are two different implementations of the calculation engine, and this run measured only the web one: the corpus was uploaded to OneDrive as .xlsx, recalculated by Excel for the web on open, and downloaded again for readback. Excel for the web is a rolling service with no pinnable version, so the run is identified by its date. Where a value here disagrees with the Expected column — which is Microsoft’s documentation of the desktop product — we cannot tell you whether the web engine diverges from the desktop one or the documentation is wrong about both, because we do not run desktop Excel.
| Formula | Description | Result | Expected | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| =CONCAT("a","b","c") | Basic literal concatenation | abc | abc | Matched |
| =CONCAT(A1:A3) | CONCAT flattens a range directly (unlike CONCATENATE, which cannot take a range) | xyz | xyz | Matched |
| =CONCAT("val:",5) | Numbers are coerced to text without an explicit TEXT() call | val:5 | val:5 | Matched |
| =CONCAT(A1:B2) | 2-D range is flattened row-major | abcd | abcd | Matched |
Google Sheets (executed 2026-08-29 via Drive import)
Google Sheets is a rolling service with no pinnable version, so this run is identified by its date. The corpus was imported to Drive as .xlsx, recalculated by Sheets, and exported back for readback.
| Formula | Description | Result | Expected | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| =CONCAT("a","b","c") | Basic literal concatenation | #N/A | abc | Mismatch |
| =CONCAT(A1:A3) | CONCAT flattens a range directly (unlike CONCATENATE, which cannot take a range) | #N/A | xyz | Mismatch |
| =CONCAT("val:",5) | Numbers are coerced to text without an explicit TEXT() call | val:5 | val:5 | Matched |
| =CONCAT(A1:B2) | 2-D range is flattened row-major | #N/A | abcd | Mismatch |
LibreOffice Calc 25.8.7.3 (tested 2026-07-29)
| Formula | Description | Result | Expected | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| =CONCAT("a","b","c") | Basic literal concatenation | abc | abc | Matched |
| =CONCAT(A1:A3) | CONCAT flattens a range directly (unlike CONCATENATE, which cannot take a range) | xyz | xyz | Matched |
| =CONCAT("val:",5) | Numbers are coerced to text without an explicit TEXT() call | val:5 | val:5 | Matched |
| =CONCAT(A1:B2) | 2-D range is flattened row-major | abcd | abcd | Matched |
Docs & syntax
- Excel (desktop): official documentation
- Google Sheets: official documentation
- LibreOffice Calc: official documentation
Where CONCAT behaves differently
- CONCAT takes exactly two arguments in Google Sheets
Google Sheets' CONCAT accepts only two scalar values - our executed run returns #N/A for =CONCAT("a","b","c") and =CONCAT(A1:A3), which LibreOffice evaluates to abc and xyz. Use TEXTJOIN or CONCATENATE instead. - openpyxl and _xlfn.XLOOKUP: why your XLOOKUP opens as #NAME?
openpyxl writes formula text verbatim, so =XLOOKUP(...) is stored in the .xlsx under its plain name. Executed 2026-09-12: that cell is #NAME? in Excel for the web and in all four pinned LibreOffice builds, while =_xlfn.XLOOKUP(...) returns 20 in Excel for the web and in LibreOffice 24.8, 25.2 and 25.8.