FIND and SEARCH in Excel - Step-by-Step Guide

Introduction

FIND and SEARCH help you find where a word or letter appears inside a text. They tell you the position number of the first letter found. This is useful when you want to locate parts of text in a cell.

When you want to find the position of a specific word in a sentence in a cell.

When you need to check if a letter or word exists inside a text and where it starts.

When you want to extract part of a text based on where a word appears.

When you want to find text without worrying about uppercase or lowercase letters.

When you want to find text but need the search to be case sensitive.

Steps

Step 1: Click

- a blank cell where you want the result

The cell is selected and ready for formula input

Step 2: Type

- the formula bar

Formula bar shows the formula you type

💡 Start typing =FIND or =SEARCH to see formula suggestions

Step 3: Type

- the formula bar

Formula bar shows the full formula with arguments

💡 Example: =FIND("a", A1) finds letter 'a' in cell A1

Step 4: Press

- Enter key

The cell shows the position number of the first letter found

Step 5: Repeat

- for SEARCH formula if case-insensitive search is needed

SEARCH finds text ignoring uppercase or lowercase differences

Before vs After

Before

Cell A1 contains the text 'Hello World'

After

Using =FIND("o", A1) returns 5 because 'o' is the 5th letter in 'Hello World'

Settings Reference

Find Text

📍 First argument in FIND or SEARCH formula

The text you want to find inside another text

Default: No default, must specify

Within Text

📍 Second argument in FIND or SEARCH formula

The text where you want to search for the find text

Default: No default, must specify

Start Number

📍 Optional third argument in FIND or SEARCH formula

Position to start searching from inside the text

Default: 1

Common Mistakes

Using FIND when you want to ignore case differences

FIND is case sensitive and will not find letters if case does not match

Use SEARCH instead, which ignores case differences

Not putting the text to find inside quotes

Excel treats unquoted text as a cell reference or name, causing errors

Always put text strings inside double quotes, like "a"

Searching for text that does not exist in the cell

FIND and SEARCH return an error if text is not found

Use IFERROR to handle errors, e.g. =IFERROR(FIND("x", A1), "Not found")

Summary

FIND and SEARCH locate the position of text inside another text.

FIND is case sensitive; SEARCH is case insensitive.

Both return the position number or an error if text is not found.