How to use SEARCH function in Excel?
SEARCH function is used to find “position of character or text” in an available cell.
Search function is NOT case sensitive, means it will search “r” for text contains “r” and “R”. If you want to find value with case sensitive, then try FIND Function
Syntax:
=SEARCH(find_text,within_text,[start_num])
Syntax Description:
find_text argument, is the used to give character/ text or cell reference for which position is required to find
within_text argument, is used to give the cell reference from which find_value to be searched
[start_num] is optional argument and is used to specify the character from which search should be started. By default, the first character is 1, however if you want search should be started from 2nd find_text value then it should be position of 2nd find_text value and so on..
Example 1: Search position of value with various scenarios
Here we have some examples, where:
– “Column A has various strings,
– “Column B” shows the sample formula that is applied,
– “Column C” shows the output of the function and
– Explanation is provided in Column “D”
Things to Remember:
– Search function will also work with Wild characters i.e. asterisk (*), question mark (?). Asterisk will find any series of characters and Question mark will find a single character.
– If you want to search actual * or ? (Asterisk or Question Mark) then type tilde (~) before * or ?
– Function should give output in “General” format, however if output is not as per the desired format then we need to change the cell format to “GENERAL”.
– If function parameters are not correctly applied in the function, then it will give output as “#VALUE!”
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