Forum Discussion
Riccardo31
Feb 05, 2026Copper Contributor
Quotation Marks - Losing my mind over Excel error
Hello everyone, As per title: trying to follow basic instructions (=C4," ",B4) and so on. Excel keeps returning an error message. I am aware of the difference between straight quotation marks and...
Olufemi7
Feb 05, 2026Iron Contributor
Hello Riccardo31,
it’s a localization issue, not quotation marks. In Italian-localized Excel, function arguments use semicolons instead of commas, so =C4," ",B4 is invalid. Use =C4&" "&B4 or =CONCAT(C4;" ";B4).
This behavior is by design and depends on regional settings.
Microsoft documentation covers this under Excel formula errors caused by incorrect list separators and how Excel uses system regional settings for decimal and list separators.
Formula errors in Excel when list separator isn't set correctly