| **Navigation:**  [[introduction.htm|Language Reference]] > 10 - Expressions > Operators >====== The Concatenation Operator ====== | [[arithmetic operators.htm|{{btn_prev_n.gif|Previous page}}]][[introduction.htm|{{btn_home_n.gif|Return to chapter overview}}]][[logical operators.htm|{{btn_next_n.gif|Next page}}]] |
|  ||

The ampersand ( & ) concatenation operator is used to append one string or string variable to another. The length of the resulting string is the sum of the lengths of the two values being concatenated. Numeric data types may be concatenated with strings or other numeric variables or constants. In many cases, the CLIP procedure should be used to remove any trailing spaces from a string being concatenated to another string.

**Example:**

**CLIP(FirstName) ****&**** ' ' ****&**** Initial ****&**** '. ' ****&**** LastName  !Concatenate full name**

**'SoftVelocity Corporation' ****&**** ', Inc.'              !Concatenate two constants**

**See Also:**

[[clip  return string without trailing spaces .htm|CLIP]]

[[numeric expressions.htm|Numeric Expressions]]

[[data type conversion rules.htm|Data Conversion Rules]]

[[format  return formatted numbers into a picture .htm|FORMAT]]