Microsoft Access:  Combine Text Values From Multiple Fields on a Form or Report

There are times when you want to combine the text from several fields into one seamless line of text. You may have lined up the text boxes on the form or report next to each other, but since the text in the boxes can often be of varying length, it’s not exactly seamless. Instead, you may want to use the ampersand (&) operator to concatenate the fields.

1. Open the form or report in Design view.
2. Add a calculated text box for the fields that you want to combine.
3. In the unbound text box, type an expression that concatenates the values from the appropriate fields. (This can also be done in the ControlSource property of the property sheet for the text box.)
   
   For example, to return an address like:
   1700 Y Street, Lincoln NE 68588-0647
   
   type this expression:
   =[Address]&", "&[City]&" "&[State]&" "&[ZIP]

If you have any questions regarding this tip or need help implementing it in your own projects, contact Ranelle Maltas, Application Support Associate, at 472-0585 or e-mail at rmaltas2@unl.edu.