What is a concatenate function?

Recently, in my volunteer position, I was asked to edit some internal instructions on how to add a filter to a promo-code email. What does this mean? Well, let's pretend that an organization was going to issue $25 free trials to users to make a donation to a charity that focused on youth. When the user clicks on the link in the email to donate using the free trial promotional code - they should be brought to a landing page where all the youth organizations requesting donations are listed and where the user can redeem his/her promo code.

To update the instructions on how to do this for every kind of themed filter (not just youth, but maybe elderly care, sports teams, or homelessness), I had to include some sort of url code and the word "Concatenate Function" was being tossed around. I feigned understanding - which goes against one of my employability project rules for myself. In reality, I have absolutely no idea what a "Concatenate Function" is, what it does or why it works.

I read that a concatenate function is a function in Excel or another spreadsheet software like Google Sheets that allows you to take details from one cell and combine them with another cell. For example, if in column A you have first names, and in column B you have last names, in column C you could have a concatenate function that combined both columns and gave you first name+last name within a single cell.

To demonstrate, here is what it can look like:

In the case above, if you look at the concatenate function, I am telling it to take A1 (Kor), add the literal "loves" (with a space on either side so that all the words don't run together), add B1 (Heather), and then add C1 (very much). I then copied the formula down through column F and in doing so, the phrase in column F would vary depending on which words were included in columns A, B and C.

This function is helpful in using mail merges (when the computer automatically adds names and addresses to a template email through use of a database).

In the case of the instructions for the non-profit website I was volunteering with, the concatenate function was creating a link to include in the email mail merge where when a donor clicked on the link, it would bring them to the website filtered by youth charities, provide the donor with a $25 free trial code and would also greet the donor by name.

Here is an example of such a URL:

=CONCATENATE(http://www.chooseacharity.org/donate/promoOffercode=",A2,"&name=",C2,"&email=",E2)

Basically, this function above is telling you to create a link at the above website and the website will include a greeting for Jimmy, put $25 towards the checkout basket.

So now we know what a concatenate function is and how it is useful. How much do you want to bet that we will soon hear of a celebrity baby named Concatenate? I'll see your $500 and raise you $1000...