FIND and SEARCH in Excel - Cell-by-Cell Formula Trace

Sample Data

This data contains text strings in column A and search characters or words in column B. We will use FIND and SEARCH to locate the position of the search text inside the strings.

Cell	Value
A1	Hello World
A2	hello world
A3	Excel FIND and SEARCH
B1	o
B2	O
B3	and

Formula Trace

=FIND(B1, A1)

Step 1: FIND("o", "Hello World")

Cell Reference Map

    A           B
1 | Hello World | o |
2 | hello world | O |
3 | Excel FIND and SEARCH | and |

The formula uses cell A1 (text) and B1 (search character) to find the position of 'o' in 'Hello World'.

Result

    A           B     C
1 | Hello World | o | 5 |
2 | hello world | O |   |
3 | Excel FIND and SEARCH | and |   |

The result 5 in cell C1 shows the position of 'o' in 'Hello World' using FIND.

Sheet Trace Quiz - 3 Questions

What position does FIND(B1, A1) return?

A 7

B 5

C 8

D 10

Key Result

FIND(text_to_find, within_text) returns the position of exact match; SEARCH(text_to_find, within_text) is similar but case-insensitive.