Free Practice WorkbookDid you know? While working on a formula in Excel, the text should be written in quotes for Excel to recognize it as text. Excel is by default programmed to accept cell references as the arguments for its formulas, and inserting texts without quotation marks will return an error.
Key Takeaways:
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Text Strings Must Be in Quotation Marks – In Excel formulas, any literal text should always be enclosed in double quotation marks (” “). Without them, Excel won’t recognize the text properly and will throw errors.
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#NAME? Error Without Quotes – Forgetting to put quotation marks around text often results in a #NAME? error, as Excel assumes the text is a named range or function.
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Numbers and References Don’t Need Quotes – Numeric values, logical values like TRUE/FALSE, and cell references (like A1) do not require quotation marks. Only direct text inputs need them.
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Text Concatenation Requires Quotes – When combining text with the
&operator orCONCATfunction, any hard-coded text must be in quotes. For example:="Hello " & B1. -
Incorrect Results Without Errors – Sometimes, missing quotation marks won’t show an error but will give unintended results, especially if the text accidentally matches an existing named range.
Let us understand this issue better with an example!
Taking the concatenate formula, its primary function would be to join two or more text strings together.
=CONCATENATE(Email ID of,A7,” is “,B7)
As you can see, we have entered a couple of text strings as the concatenate formula’s argument, but Excel is returning the value as an error.
This is because the text strings (i.e. Email ID of) that we have entered are not in quotation marks, and hence Excel is unable to comprehend the values given as arguments.
Even though concatenate is a function largely used to combine text strings, Excel is unable to identify text unless:
Let’s try this formula again in the correct way!
Table of Contents
Using Cell References
Here we will use the same concatenate function by given cell references that contain the texts we want to join.
As you can see, the cells B6 and C6 contain the text we want to join. Simply selecting the cells as each of the arguments for the function will return the value it is!
You can use this formula to concatenate using cell reference:
=CONCATENATE($B$6,A9,$C$6,B9)
Make sure to put $ signs to freeze the cell reference so that you can easily copy the formula down!
This might create an issue as there is no space in between the texts.
So after each cell reference given in the arguments, we must insert a space. To do this, we just have to add ” ” in-between the text references to add a space in between.
And, Voila. You now have the desired result!
Using Quotation Marks
As explained above, text that is to be entered within the arguments of formula must be in quotation marks.
=CONCATENATE(“Email ID of “,A7,” is “,B7)
Make sure to add space right after the text!
Here we have entered a couple of texts as arguments in the concatenate function, and notice how every text is in quotation marks. These same text strings returned an error when we used them without quotation marks.
Similarly, here we can also add spaces in between in-text as explained above.
Frequently Asked Questions
What happens if I forget quotation marks around text in a formula?
Excel will attempt to treat the text as a named range or function, often leading to a #NAME? error or incorrect results.
Do I need quotation marks for numbers and cell references?
No. Quotation marks are only needed for text strings. Numbers, logical values (TRUE/FALSE), and references like A1 don’t require them.
Can I use single quotes instead of double quotes in Excel formulas?
No. Excel requires double quotation marks (” “) for text strings. Single quotes are not recognized for this purpose.
How can I include a quotation mark within a text string?
You can display quotation marks inside a text string by using double double-quotes (“”). Example:="She said ""Hi"" to me" will show: She said "Hi" to me.
Is there a way to avoid quotation marks when using text in formulas?
Yes, instead of typing text directly, you can reference a cell containing the text, which eliminates the need for quotation marks in the formula.
Conclusion
When writing formulas, Excel will identify a text only if it’s written within quotation marks.
Excel extracts anything written within the quotation mark as text and discards the quotation mark. We hope after this exercise, the concept of inserting text within quotes is clear to you and you can now use Excel formulas efficiently.
John Michaloudis is a former accountant and finance analyst at General Electric, a Microsoft MVP since 2020, an Amazon #1 bestselling author of 4 Microsoft Excel books and teacher of Microsoft Excel & Office over at his flagship MyExcelOnline Academy Online Course.
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