FIND and SEARCH in Excel - Cheat Sheet & Quick Revision

Recall & Review

beginner

What does the FIND function do in Excel?

FIND locates the position of one text string inside another. It tells you where a specific word or letter starts in a cell. It is case-sensitive.

beginner

How is SEARCH different from FIND in Excel?

SEARCH also finds the position of text inside another text but is not case-sensitive. It can find text regardless of uppercase or lowercase letters.

beginner

What happens if FIND or SEARCH does not find the text?

Both FIND and SEARCH return an error (#VALUE!) if the text you are looking for is not found in the cell.

beginner

Write the formula to find the position of "cat" in cell A1 using FIND.

The formula is =FIND("cat", A1). It returns the starting position number of "cat" in the text inside A1, considering case.

intermediate

Can FIND and SEARCH start looking from a position other than the first character? How?

Yes, both functions have an optional third argument to specify the starting position. For example, =FIND("a", A1, 3) starts looking from the 3rd character.

Which function is case-sensitive when searching text in Excel?

A NEITHER FIND nor SEARCH

B FIND

C BOTH FIND and SEARCH

D SEARCH

FIND is case-sensitive, meaning it distinguishes uppercase and lowercase letters. SEARCH is not case-sensitive.

What result do FIND and SEARCH return if the text is not found?

A 0

B Empty string

C FALSE

D #VALUE! error

Both FIND and SEARCH return a #VALUE! error if the text to find is not present.

Which formula finds the position of "dog" in cell B2 ignoring case?

A =FIND("dog", B2)

B =FIND("DOG", B2)

C =SEARCH("dog", B2)

D =SEARCH("DOG", B2, 2)

SEARCH ignores case, so it finds "dog" regardless of letter case.

How do you start searching from the 5th character in a text using FIND?

A =FIND(text, cell, 5)

B =FIND(text, cell)

C =FIND(text, 5, cell)

D =FIND(5, text, cell)

The third argument in FIND is the starting position number.

If cell A1 contains "Hello World", what does =SEARCH("world", A1) return?

A 7

B #VALUE!

C 6

D 11

SEARCH is not case-sensitive and finds "world" starting at position 7.

Explain the difference between FIND and SEARCH functions in Excel.

Think about how they treat uppercase and lowercase letters.

Describe a real-life example where you would use FIND or SEARCH in a spreadsheet.

Imagine you have a list of email addresses or product codes.