How to Add Parentheses Around Text in Excel (With Examples)

You can use the following formula to add parentheses around the text in a specific cell in Excel:

="("&A2&")"

This particular formula adds parentheses around the text in cell A2.

For example if cell A2 contains the name Andy then this formula would return (Andy) as a result.

Note: This formula simply uses the & symbol to concatenate parentheses around the existing text in cell A2.

The following example shows how to use this formula in practice.

Example: How to Add Parentheses Around Text in Excel

Suppose we have the following list of athlete names in Excel:

Suppose we would like to add parentheses around each athlete name.

We can type the following formula into cell B2 to do so:

="("&A2&")"

We can then click and drag this formula down to each remaining cell in column B:

Excel add parentheses around text

Notice that column B now displays the text in each corresponding cell in column A with parentheses wrapped around it.

Also note that you could use a similar formula to wrap any symbols you’d like around the text.

For example, you could instead type the following formula into cell B2 to wrap brackets around the text in cell A2:

="["&A2&"]"

The following screenshot shows how to use this formula in practice:

Notice that column B now displays the text in each corresponding cell in column A with brackets wrapped around it.

The following tutorials explain how to perform other common tasks in Excel: