FIND
Formulas / FINDTo find out where a substring is located within a string.
=FIND(find_text, within_text, [start_num])
- find_text - the substring to find
- within_text - the text to search in
- start_num - [OPTIONAL] the starting search position in the text. Defaults to 1 if not specified.
Examples
=FIND("p","apple ")The FIND function returns the position of a substring within a string. In the example above, the FIND function returns the number 2, because "p" is the second letter in the string "apple":
=FIND("A","Apple")The FIND function is case-sensitive, which means it will only return the position of a substring if the substring is all in lowercase or all in uppercase. In the example above, the FIND function returns the number 1, because "A" is the first letter in the string "Apple":
=FIND("a","Apple")The FIND function is case-sensitive, so it returns a #VALUE! error if you're looking for a lower case letter but only the upper case letter is in the string, or vice versa.
=FIND("x","20 x 30 x 50")The FIND function can be used to find the position of a substring within a string of text. In the example above, the FIND function returns the number 4, because "x" is the fourth letter in the string "20 x 30 x 50":
Summary
The FIND function searches for the text specified by the find_text parameter within the within_text parameter.
- The position of a string within a string is returned as a number by the FIND function.
- FIND returns a #VALUE! error if the text is not found.
- The FIND function does not support wildcards. Use SEARCH instead of FIND if you want to find substrings with wildcards.
- The FIND function is always case-sensitive.
- FIND may be nested in other functions such as ISNUMBER to create more complex formulas.
- start_num is an optional argument for FIND and may be used to control where FIND should start its search for the substring.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the FIND function?
What are the arguments of FIND?
What is the start_num argument?
Does FIND count single-byte and double-byte characters the same?
