FIND
Finds the position of one text string within another. Case-sensitive.
FIND(find_text, within_text, [start_num])Arguments
find_textThe text to findwithin_textThe text to search instart_numPosition to start searching(optional)
=FIND("o","Hello World")Finds 'o' at position 5
=FIND("@",A1)Finds @ symbol in email
=IFERROR(FIND("X",A1),0)Returns 0 instead of error
- •Case-sensitive (use SEARCH for case-insensitive)
- •Returns #VALUE! if text not found
- •First character is position 1
- •Using FIND on text with inconsistent capitalization, not realizing it's case-sensitive - searching for "apple" won't match "Apple"
- •Forgetting FIND returns an error, not a 0, when the search text isn't found, which can break a formula that expects a number
- •Mixing up FIND and SEARCH, then wondering why a search using a wildcard character silently fails - only SEARCH supports wildcards
SEARCHDoes the same job but case-insensitively and with wildcard support.MIDOften paired with FIND to extract text starting at the found position.SUBSTITUTEReplaces text directly rather than just locating its position.What's the difference between FIND and SEARCH?
FIND is case-sensitive and doesn't support wildcards. SEARCH is case-insensitive and does support wildcards like ? and *. Otherwise they work the same way.
Why does FIND return a #VALUE! error?
It couldn't find the search text anywhere in the string - check for extra spaces, different capitalization if you meant to use SEARCH, or a typo in the search term.
Can FIND search for more than one character at once?
Yes, it searches for the entire text string you give it, not just a single character - =FIND("total",A1) looks for the whole word.
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