
To correctly use a FIND formula in Excel, keep in mind the following simple facts: The formula =FIND("a", "find") returns an error because there is no "a" in " find".Įxcel FIND function - things to remember! If the FIND function does not find the find_text character(s), a #VALUE! error is returned.įor example, the formula =FIND("d", "find") returns 4 because "d" is the 4 th letter in the word " find". If omitted, the search starts from the 1 st character of the within_text string.
Start_num - an optional argument that specifies from which character the search shall begin. Usually it's supplied as a cell reference, but you can also type the string directly in the formula. Within_text - the text string to be searched within. Find_text - the character or substring you want to find. The first 2 arguments are required, the last one is optional. However if there are any instances where the word or number you’re searching for is a section of text in a cell you don’t want to replace, you could risk losing data that you don’t want to replace.FIND(find_text, within_text, ) If you’re very brave, you could select Replace All rather than stepping through every one using the procedure above. Continue cycling through Find Next and Replace until all of the instances of what your searching for have been found and replaced. If you’ve found one you don’t want to replace, just select Find Next instead to move on. Select Replace to replace that instance. Select Find Next to highlight the first location with the text or number you’re searching for. Then, you follow the steps below to search and replace all instances of what you’re searching for. The way this field works is you type the text or number you’d like to replace the text you’ve entered into the Find what field with. The only difference is that now you’ll see a Replace with field. Just like in the previous section, you’ll need to select Options to see all of the advanced search features.Īll of the advanced search features work exactly like they do in the Find tab. You can also open this window at the Replace tab by selecting the Home menu, selecting Find & Replace from the Editing group in the ribbon, and then selecting Replace. In the same Find and Replace window, if you select the Replace tab, you’ll see additional options that’ll let you not only find text or numbers in your spreadsheet but you can replace those with different text or numbers. For example, if you actually want to find the word “user?” (including the question mark) you can type user~? and this will override the special ? character to actually do the search including the question mark. Tilde (~): Use this character to override the special characters above. For example, type c*t to find any length word from cart and cast to count and court. For example, type c?t to find any three letter word that starts with c and ends with t like cat, cut, or cot.
Question mark (?): Replace any single character or number.These let you customize more advanced search so you can search in Excel and find exactly what you’re looking for in the worksheet. When you’re typing search characters into the Find What field, it’s important that you understand how wildcard characters work. Just select any one of them to see that cell in the sheet. This displays all of the results, along with the sheet and cell number where they’re found, in a list at the bottom of the window. If you want to see them all at once, just select Find All. Select the button again to move on to the next result. If you select Find Next, you’ll see each incident in the spreadsheet where the text is found highlighted. Match entire cell contents: This will search for cells that only contain the text you type and nothing else.
Match case: This will conduct the search using case sensitive text matching.Look in: You can deepen your search to other areas of your spreadsheet by telling the search to look in Formulas, Values, Notes or Comments.Search: Select By Rows or By Columns to conduct your search a row at a time or a column at a time (and stop on that row or column when it finds a result).Within: Select Sheet or Workbook to search inside the current sheet or across the entire workbook.Format: Select this button to only search for text that has the formatting you define in the Find Format window.Find what: Type the text or number that you want to find.You can use the following options to fine tune your search: