Is syntax and arguments are akin to those of FIND: The SEARCH function in Excel is very similar to FIND in that it also returns the location of a substring in a text string.
If find_text is an empty string "", the Excel FIND formula returns the first character in the search string.For example, FIND("l", "hello") returns 3, which is the position of the first "l" character in the word "hello". If within_text contains several occurrences of find_text, the first occurrence is returned.For example, the formula FIND("ap","happy") returns 2 because "a" in the 2 nd letter in the word "happy". If the find_text argument contains several characters, the FIND function returns the position of the first character.The FIND function in Excel does not allow using wildcard characters.If you are looking for a case-insensitive match, use the SEARCH function. 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.