---
title: Merge cells
metaTitle: Merge cells - Guide - Handsontable Documentation
permalink: /next/merge-cells
canonicalUrl: /merge-cells
---

# Merge cells

[[toc]]

## Overview

The merging cells feature enables you to combine the contents of two or more cells to create a new larger cell that spans several columns. Particularly useful when you have data that's length is greater than the width of the column. For example, a license id that's length is so long that it needs more than one column width to view it in its entirety.

## How to merge cells

To enable the merge cells feature, set the `mergeCells` option to be `true` or an array.

To initialize Handsontable with predefined merged cells, provide merged cells details in form of an array: `mergeCells: [{ row: 1, col: 1, rowspan: 2, colspan: 2 }]`.

::: example #example1
```js
const container = document.querySelector('#example1');

const hot = new Handsontable(container, {
  data: Handsontable.helper.createSpreadsheetData(100, 50),
  height: 320,
  colWidths: 47,
  rowHeaders: true,
  colHeaders: true,
  contextMenu: true,
  mergeCells: [
    { row: 1, col: 1, rowspan: 3, colspan: 3 },
    { row: 3, col: 4, rowspan: 2, colspan: 2 },
    { row: 5, col: 6, rowspan: 3, colspan: 3 }
  ],
  licenseKey: 'non-commercial-and-evaluation'
});
```
:::