How to combine one character of a cell with text from another cell in Excel

[Darla Nice]

We are trying to take the first letter of the first name in column A and combine it with the last name in column B.  We need this to be in a formula form and not just using text to column or flash fill.  Is there a formula we can use for this? 

Example:

Mary (cell A1) Smith (cell B1) combine to cell C1 as MSmith

Thanks for your help. 

[#2]

=left(A1,1) & B1

[#3]

Thank you so much!

[#4]

No problem, glad it worked :)

You might also have a look at right() and mid() they do similar things for the right and middle of a text string.

[#5]

Bit shorter

=LEFT(A1) & B1