Find function is one of the many functions that are available in Excel. Find function is used to return the position of a specific character or string within a text range. Excel Find function returns the number of one text string inside another.
Find function is categorized under the head String/Text function. It is an in-built function in Excel. It is a part of the formula so it can be used as a worksheet function. The find function is case sensitive.
In case if you want to search for non-case-sensitive, you can use the Search Function in Excel.
Search and Find functions are almost similar to each other. To find the position of the substring in the string we use the Find function. It will help you to find the location of the text in the string. It returns a numeric value.
The find function was introduced in the year 2000. and learn more Function at Excel Functions in Hindi
Syntax of the Find Function in Excel
Where,
Find_text: This is the argument entered to find the character or substring. This argument is compulsory
Within_text: This is the argument to enter the String we want to search within. This argument is compulsory.
Start_num: This is an optional argument that specifies the search cell range. If you do not enter it starts the search from the 1st character of the within_text range.
This function would be clearer when you go through the examples below. Below are the different examples, each example shows how the find function works in Excel. Let’s take a look at 5 examples one by one.
Example 1: Mangoes
Here we want to find “O” from the example Mangoes. You can see in the example that we want to find O in cell C4 from the cell B4. Enter the find Formula and Press Enter
Result: What do we see? #Value. Now you would ask why the error. This is because you entered Uppercase O instead of lowercase o. As in the example Mangoes, there is no Uppercase O.
So, it is to be noted that you will only find the exact match available and so match and find functions are very similar.
Example 2: Excel Courses
Here we want to find “C” from the example Excel Courses. You can see in the example that we want to find C in the cell C5 from the cell B5. Enter the Find formula and Press Enter.
Result: What do you see? 7 is the answer. This means that the letter C is in the 7th place in the cell B5. It also counts the space between Excel Courses.
So, it is noted that space is calculated while calculating the find the formula in Excel.
Example 3: Jimmy Anderson
Here I want to find where the space located in the text string is. So I will type space in the cell C6 and we want to find the space from the cell B6. Enter the Find Formula and Press Enter
Result: What did you find? It returned 6 in the result column. Why 6? It is because space is entered after the word Jimmy which is in the 6th place in the text string.
However, if you would have entered space before the word Jimmy it would return 1 as the result because it is at the 1st place in the string.
Example 4: 1000
Now we take a number into consideration. Suppose we took 1000 in cell B7 and we want to find 0. Enter the Find formula and press enter.
Result: What do we get the answer? The answer is 2. This is because 0 is in second place in cell B7. There are three 0 in the string. So you could conclude that the answer should be 3 and 4 as well.
This function lets you find the first place where 0 is located in the string and that first place is 2nd.
Example 5: Become an Excel Superstar
Here I have left what to find function blank. C8 is empty it does not contain space either. Enter the Find function and press Enter.
Result: What do you see? The answer is 1. It turned out to be 1 as the cell contains nothing in it. If you would have entered space it would return 7. If you entered Excel it would return 11 as Excel world is at the 11th place in the string.
If you enter any wild character it would return #VALUE!
The examples above have explained to you regarding the find function in Excel. The possible answers for it and also how to use the find function in Excel.