11/7/23, 11:14 AM If Cell Contains Specific Text - Easy Excel Tutorial

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To check if a cell contains specific text, use ISNUMBER and
Chapter
SEARCH in Excel. There's no CONTAINS function in Excel.
Logical Functions
1. To find the position of a substring in a text string, use the
SEARCH function.
Learn more,
it's
If easy

Comparison

Operators

Or

Roll the Dice

Ifs
Explanation: "duck" found at position 10, "donkey" found at
position 1, cell A4 does not contain the word "horse" and Contains Specific Text
"goat" found at position 12.
Switch
2. Add the ISNUMBER function. The ISNUMBER function returns
If Cell is Blank
TRUE if a cell contains a number, and FALSE if not.
Absolute Value

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Excel File
contains-specific-

text.xlsx

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Cell References
Explanation: cell A2 contains the word "duck", cell A3 contains
the word "donkey", cell A4 does not contain the word "horse"
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and cell A5 contains the word "goat".
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11/7/23, 11:14 AM If Cell Contains Specific Text - Easy Excel Tutorial

3. You can also check if a cell contains specific text, without

Become an
displaying the substring. Make sure to enclose the substring in
double quotation marks. Excel Pro
300 Examples

4. To perform a case-sensitive search, replace the SEARCH

function with the FIND function.

Explanation: the formula in cell C3 returns FALSE now. Cell A3

does not contain the word "donkey" but contains the word
"Donkey".

5. Add the IF function. The formula below (case-insensitive)

returns "Found" if a cell contains specific text, and "Not Found"
if not.

6. You can also use IF and COUNTIF in Excel to check if a cell

contains specific text. However, the COUNTIF function is always
case-insensitive.

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11/7/23, 11:14 AM If Cell Contains Specific Text - Easy Excel Tutorial

Explanation: the formula in cell C2 reduces to

=IF(COUNTIF(A2,"*duck*"),"Found","Not Found"). An asterisk (*)
matches a series of zero or more characters. Visit our page
about the COUNTIF function to learn all you need to know
about this powerful function.

7/10 Completed! Learn more about logical functions >

Go to Next Chapter: Cell References

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