FIND and SEARCH in Google Sheets - Real Business Scenario

Scenario Mode

👤 Your Role: You are a customer service analyst at an online retail company.

📋 Request: Your manager wants to analyze customer feedback comments to find specific keywords and their positions within the comments.

📊 Data: You have a list of customer feedback comments in one column. Each comment is a sentence describing their experience. You need to find where certain words appear in these comments.

🎯 Deliverable: Create a sheet that shows the position of the word 'fast' and the word 'slow' in each comment using FIND and SEARCH functions.

Sample Data

Comment ID	Customer Feedback
1	The delivery was very fast and on time.
2	Customer service was slow to respond.
3	Fast shipping but packaging was poor.
4	The product arrived late and slow.
5	Fast and reliable service every time.
6	Slow delivery but good quality.
7	Everything was perfect and fast.
8	Slow response time from support team.

1

Step 1: Insert two new columns next to the Customer Feedback column. Label them 'Position of fast (FIND)' and 'Position of slow (SEARCH)'.

Expected Result

Two new columns appear with the correct headers.

2

Step 2: In the first row under 'Position of fast (FIND)', enter the formula to find the position of the word 'fast' in the feedback using FIND function.

=FIND("fast", B2)

Expected Result

Returns 23 for row 2 because 'fast' starts at the 23rd character in the first comment.

3

Step 3: Copy the formula down the 'Position of fast (FIND)' column for all feedback rows.

Drag the fill handle from the first formula cell down to the last row.

Expected Result

Positions of 'fast' appear for each comment where 'fast' exists; errors appear where 'fast' is not found.

4

Step 4: In the first row under 'Position of slow (SEARCH)', enter the formula to find the position of the word 'slow' in the feedback using SEARCH function.

=SEARCH("slow", B2)

Expected Result

Returns an error for row 2 because 'slow' is not in the first comment.

5

Step 5: Copy the formula down the 'Position of slow (SEARCH)' column for all feedback rows.

Drag the fill handle from the first formula cell down to the last row.

Expected Result

Positions of 'slow' appear for each comment where 'slow' exists; errors appear where 'slow' is not found.

6

Step 6: To avoid errors, wrap the FIND formula with IFERROR to show 'Not found' instead of error.

=IFERROR(FIND("fast", B2), "Not found")

Expected Result

Cells show position numbers or 'Not found' if 'fast' is missing.

7

Step 7: Similarly, wrap the SEARCH formula with IFERROR to show 'Not found' instead of error.

=IFERROR(SEARCH("slow", B2), "Not found")

Expected Result

Cells show position numbers or 'Not found' if 'slow' is missing.

Final Result

Comment ID | Customer Feedback                      | Position of fast (FIND) | Position of slow (SEARCH)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1          | The delivery was very fast and on time.| 23                     | Not found
2          | Customer service was slow to respond.   | Not found               | 22
3          | Fast shipping but packaging was poor.  | Not found               | Not found
4          | The product arrived late and slow.      | Not found               | 30
5          | Fast and reliable service every time.  | Not found               | Not found
6          | Slow delivery but good quality.         | Not found               | 1
7          | Everything was perfect and fast.        | 28                     | Not found
8          | Slow response time from support team.   | Not found               | 1

✓The word 'fast' appears mostly near the start or middle of comments.

✓The word 'slow' appears in different positions but is always found when present.

✓Using IFERROR helps keep the sheet clean by replacing errors with 'Not found'.

Bonus Challenge

Create a formula that counts how many comments contain the word 'fast' or 'slow' regardless of case.

Show Hint

Use SEARCH inside an ARRAYFORMULA with ISNUMBER to count matches ignoring case.