Combine contents of columns

I have a spreadsheet which has 3 columns and around 1400 rows. Each row contains either a 1, 2 or a 3, depending on which column it is. 1 for column 1, 2 for column 2 and a 3 for column 3.
Occasionally, a few rows have both a 1 and a 3.
I need to make this only one column. Is there a way to merge the contents of all of the columns without losing the cell data?

Not sure what you mean,maybe in Column D

=A1+B1+C1

Originally Posted by zbor

Try this:

=CONCATENATE(H2, I2, J2)

extend formula down
copy column
paste spetial -> values

Sorry for appearing dumb, but where would I put that formula? Which row, which cell and which column?
copy column and paste spetial values, I've no idea what this means.
I appreciate you trying to help but I don't understand what to do with your answer.
Edit: I just checked excel's built in help. It does mention concatenate, but this is Microsoft help, so it doesn't explain how to actually use the concatenate command.

in another column either use concatenate and drag down, or just use &
=a1&b1&c1&d1 if you want them separated add the space
=a1&" "&b1&" "&c1&" "&d1 to remove excessive
spaces wrap that up in trim()
=trim(a1&" "&b1&" "&c1&" "&d1)
copy/paste special values removes the formula and just leaves the results.
copy the column then instead of just using paste click edit choose paste special and select the values option click ok

Originally Posted by martindwilson

in another column either use concatenate and drag down, or just use &
=a1&b1&c1&d1 if you want them separated add the space
=a1&" "&b1&" "&c1&" "&d1 to remove excessive
spaces wrap that up in trim()
=trim(a1&" "&b1&" "&c1&" "&d1)
copy/paste special values removes the formula and just leaves the results.
copy the column then instead of just using paste click edit choose paste special and select the values option click ok

I thought I had it there. I am using the string below....
=CONCATENATE(D2," ",E2, " ", F2," ",G2,)
It works fine except for just over 200 entries which are listed as 2-3/14 or 4-3/21
What happens here is that despite this number being in one cell and not having to be concatenated, the routine brings the numbers out as 3/14 and 3/21
So it's losing the number before the dash.
Grrr I coulda had this done by hand by now.


I also use the string =B2&" "&C2&" "&D2&" "&E2
This does basically the same except it works for some cells in the format 4-3/21, but not all of them for some weird reason.
I have looked at another help file which describes how to paste special values and what you have to copy, and where you paste it eludes me still. I have 5 columns, which one do I copy and where do I paste it?

Here's another anomaly.
If I correct one of the cells, by manually entering 16-1/29 excel will automatically change it to a date, no matter what I do. lol
I would seriously like some advice here cos none of this makes sense and if I can't get the spreadsheet to do it, I'm going to have to spend a couple of nights doing it all by hand.