Magento: How to merge multiple fields in a colum in Magento admin panel grid?

Magento provides lot of inbuild functionalities. Using “protected function _prepareColumns()” function we can create or add new column to the grid.

Like:

	protected function _prepareColumns()
	{
		$this->addColumn('first_name', array(
			'header'	=>	Mage::helper('custommodule')->__('First Name'),
			'align'		=>	'left',
			'width'		=>	'50px',
			'index'		=>	'first_name',
		));

		$this->addColumn('last_name', array(
			'header'	=>	Mage::helper('custommodule')->__('Last Name'),
			'align'		=>	'left',
			'width'		=>	'50px',
			'index'		=>	'last_name',
		));
  	}

But sometimes we have lot of columns for our custom module and we need to merge two columns to single column. So what we have to do?
I explain you how can we do this by programmatically: We can use ‘Renderer’ terms to combine two columns.

	Mage_Adminhtml_Block_Widget_Grid_Column_Renderer_Abstract

Step1: Firstly, create a new folder ‘Renderer’ inside the Block/Adminhtml folder of your custom plugin.
Step2: Make a new file called ‘CustomerName.php’ with the below contents:

	class Company_Custommodule_Block_Adminhtml_Renderer_CustomerName extends Mage_Adminhtml_Block_Widget_Grid_Column_Renderer_Abstract {

    public function render(Varien_Object $row) {
                if ($row->getData('first_name') != NULL || $row->getData('last_name') != NULL) {
			$firstName = $row->getData('first_name');
	                $lastName = $row->getData('last_name');
			if ($lastName != NULL) {
				return $firstName . ' ' . $lastName;
	                } else {
				return $firstName;
			}
	        } else {
        		return Mage::helper('dailydeal')->__('NO NAME ASSIGNED');
	        }
    }
}

Step3: Then, in the grid, make a new column with calling above rendrerer file:

	protected function _prepareColumns()
	{
		$this->addColumn('first_name', array(
			'header'	=>	Mage::helper('custommodule')->__('First Name'),
			'align'		=>	'left',
			'width'		=>	'100px',
			'index'		=>	'first_name',
			'renderer'      =>      new Company_Custommodule_Block_Adminhtml_Renderer_CustomerName(),
		));  
	}

I hope it will work for you too…. 🙂