Microsoft Excel has numerous powerful data analysis functions, but sometimes you need to do something simple like merge some cells. Here's how.

it's already in columns. I need to combine them into two. so all the data that's in the first b is under the first a and the second b is matched under the second a.

However, because Excel largely relies on you having a consistent grid of individual cells placed in rows and columns, merging cells causes issues when you come to make changes to your data.