Excel search text in cell from list

Let's say you want to ensure that a column contains text, not numbers. Or, perhapsyou want to find all orders that correspond to a specificsalesperson. If you have no concern for upper- or lowercase text, there are several ways to check if a cell contains text.

You can also use a filter to find text. For more information, see Filter data.

Find cells that contain text

Follow these steps to locate cells containing specific text:

  1. Select the range of cells that you want to search.

    To search the entire worksheet, click any cell.

  2. On the Home tab, in the Editing group, click Find & Select, and then click Find.

    Excel search text in cell from list

  3. In the Find what box, enter the text—or numbers—that you need to find. Or, choose a recent search from the Find what drop-down box.

    Note:You can use wildcard characters in your search criteria.

  4. To specify a format for your search, click Format and make your selections in the Find Format popup window.

  5. Click Options to further define your search. For example, you can search for all of the cells that contain the same kind of data, such as formulas.

    In the Within box, you can select Sheet or Workbook to search a worksheet or an entire workbook.

  6. Click Find All or Find Next.

    Find All lists every occurrence of the item that you need to find,and allows you to make a cell active by selecting a specific occurrence. You can sort the results of a Find All search by clicking a header.

Note:To cancel a search in progress, press ESC.

Check if a cell has any text in it

To do this task, use the ISTEXT function.

Excel search text in cell from list

Check if a cell matches specific text

Use the IF function to return results for the condition that you specify.

Excel search text in cell from list

Check if part of a cell matches specific text

To do this task, use the IF, SEARCH, and ISNUMBER functions.

Note:The SEARCH function is case-insensitive.

Excel search text in cell from list

Let's say that you want to look up an employee's phone extension by using their badge number, or the correct rate of a commission for a sales amount. You look up data to quickly and efficiently find specific data in a list and to automatically verify that you are using correct data. After you look up the data, you can perform calculations or display results with the values returned. There are several ways to look up values in a list of data and to display the results.

To do this task, you can use the VLOOKUP function, or a combination of the INDEX and MATCH functions.

Excel search text in cell from list

Excel search text in cell from list

For more information, see VLOOKUP function.

Excel search text in cell from list

In simple English it means:

=INDEX(I want the return value from C2:C10, that will MATCH(Kale, which is somewhere in the B2:B10 array, where the return value is the first value corresponding to Kale))

The formula looks for the first value in C2:C10 that corresponds to Kale (in B7) and returns the value in C7 (100), which is the first value that matches Kale.

For more information, see INDEX function and MATCH function.

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To do this, use the VLOOKUP function.

Important:  Make sure the values in the first row have been sorted in an ascending order.

Excel search text in cell from list

In the above example, VLOOKUP looks for the first name of the student who has 6 tardies in the A2:B7 range. There is no entry for 6 tardies in the table, so VLOOKUP looks for the next highest match lower than 6, and finds the value 5, associated to the first name Dave, and thus returns Dave.

For more information, see VLOOKUP function.

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To do this task, use the OFFSET and MATCH functions.

Note: Use this approach when your data is in an external data range that you refresh each day. You know the price is in column B, but you don't know how many rows of data the server will return, and the first column isn't sorted alphabetically.

Excel search text in cell from list

C1 is the upper left cells of the range (also called the starting cell).

MATCH("Oranges",C2:C7,0) looks for Oranges in the C2:C7 range. You should not include the starting cell in the range.

1 is the number of columns to the right of the starting cell where the return value should be from. In our example, the return value is from column D, Sales.

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To do this task, use the HLOOKUP function. See an example below:

Excel search text in cell from list

HLOOKUP looks up the Sales column, and returns the value from row 5 in the specified range.

For more information, see HLOOKUP function.

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To do this task, use the HLOOKUP function.

Important:  Make sure the values in the first row have been sorted in an ascending order.

Excel search text in cell from list

In the above example, HLOOKUP looks for the value 11000 in row 3 in the specified range. It does not find 11000 and hence looks for the next largest value less than 1100 and returns 10543.

For more information, see HLOOKUP function.

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In Excel 2007, the Lookup Wizard creates the lookup formula based on a worksheet data that has row and column labels. The Lookup Wizard helps you find other values in a row when you know the value in one column, and vice versa. The Lookup Wizard uses INDEX and MATCH in the formulas that it creates.

  1. Click a cell in the range.

  2. On the Formulas tab, in the Solutions group, click Lookup.

  3. If the Lookup command is not available, then you need to load the Lookup Wizard add-in program.

    How to load the Lookup Wizard Add-in program

  4. Click the Microsoft Office Button

    Excel search text in cell from list
    , click Excel Options, and then click the Add-ins category.

  5. In the Manage box, click Excel Add-ins, and then click Go.

  6. In the Add-Ins available dialog box, select the check box next to Lookup Wizard, and then click OK.

  7. Follow the instructions in the wizard.

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