CONCATENATE and JOIN in Google Sheets - Dashboard Guide

Dashboard Mode - CONCATENATE and JOIN

Dashboard Goal

Show how to combine text from multiple cells using CONCATENATE and JOIN functions in Google Sheets to create meaningful summaries.

Sample Data

First Name	Last Name	City	Hobbies
Alice	Smith	New York	Reading, Painting
Bob	Jones	Chicago	Cooking, Hiking
Carol	Lee	San Francisco	Photography, Traveling
David	Kim	Seattle	Gaming, Running
Eve	Brown	Boston	Writing, Yoga

Dashboard Components

• Full Name (CONCATENATE): In cell E2, formula: =CONCATENATE(A2, " ", B2) combines first and last names with a space.
  Example result for row 2: "Alice Smith"
• Summary Sentence (CONCATENATE): In cell F2, formula: =CONCATENATE(E2, " lives in ", C2, " and enjoys ", D2, ".") creates a sentence.
  Example result for row 2: "Alice Smith lives in New York and enjoys Reading, Painting."
• All Cities Joined (JOIN): In cell H2, formula: =JOIN(", ", C2:C6) combines all cities separated by commas.
  Result: "New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Seattle, Boston"
• All Hobbies Joined (JOIN): In cell H3, formula: =JOIN("; ", D2:D6) combines all hobbies separated by semicolons.
  Result: "Reading, Painting; Cooking, Hiking; Photography, Traveling; Gaming, Running; Writing, Yoga"

Dashboard Layout

+----------------------+------------------------------+
| Full Name (E2:E6)    | Summary Sentence (F2:F6)      |
| [Alice Smith]        | [Alice Smith lives in New York|
| [Bob Jones]          | and enjoys Reading, Painting.] |
| ...                  | ...                          |
+----------------------+------------------------------+
| All Cities Joined (H2)                            |
| [New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Seattle, Boston] |
+--------------------------------------------------+
| All Hobbies Joined (H3)                           |
| [Reading, Painting; Cooking, Hiking; ...]        |
+--------------------------------------------------+

Interactivity

Add a filter by City to show only rows for selected cities. When a city is selected, the Full Name and Summary Sentence lists update to show only those people. The All Cities Joined and All Hobbies Joined cells update to join only the visible rows' data.

Self Check

If you filter the City to show only "Seattle" and "Boston", which components update and what will be the new All Cities Joined value?

Answer: The Full Name and Summary Sentence lists show only David Kim and Eve Brown. The All Cities Joined cell updates to "Seattle, Boston". The All Hobbies Joined cell updates to "Gaming, Running; Writing, Yoga".

Key Result

Dashboard demonstrating how to combine text from multiple cells using CONCATENATE and JOIN in Google Sheets.