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Excel FIND function

FIND tells you the position where one piece of text first appears inside another. It is case sensitive and does not allow wildcards. Its main job is feeding a position to LEFT, MID, or RIGHT.

=FIND(find_text, within_text, [start_num])

Arguments

find_text
The text you are looking for.
within_text
The text or cell to search in.
start_num
Which character to start searching from. Leave it out to start at 1.

FIND examples

Every result below was calculated from this sample sheet by the same spreadsheet engine the Cellwise app uses.

ABC
1Full nameEmailSKU
2Diana Princediana@themyscira.orgSHOE-RED-42
3Bruce Waynebwayne@wayne-ent.comBOOT-BLK-44
4Clark Kentckent@dailyplanet.comSAND-TAN-39
  1. =FIND(" ",A2)

    Result: 6

    The space in "Diana Prince" is character 6.

  2. =FIND("@",B3)

    Result: 7

    Finds the @ at position 7, ready to split the email.

  3. =FIND("-",C2,FIND("-",C2)+1)

    Result: 9

    Starting just after the first dash finds the second dash at position 9.

  4. =FIND("w",A3)

    Result: #VALUE!

    FIND is case sensitive. "Wayne" has a capital W, so lowercase "w" gives #VALUE!.

How to use FIND

  1. Type =FIND( and the text to look for, in quotes.
  2. Add a comma and select the cell to search.
  3. Close the bracket to get a position number.
  4. Feed that number to LEFT, MID or RIGHT.

Common FIND mistakes

Case mismatch

FIND("w","Wayne") fails. Use SEARCH if you do not care about upper or lower case.

Text not found shows #VALUE!

FIND returns #VALUE! when there is no match, not 0. Wrap it in IFERROR or ISNUMBER.

Using wildcards

FIND treats * and ? as literal characters. SEARCH supports wildcards.

FIND FAQ

What is the difference between FIND and SEARCH in Excel?

FIND is case sensitive and has no wildcards. SEARCH ignores case and supports * and ?. Otherwise they work the same.

How do I check if a cell contains specific text in Excel?

Use =ISNUMBER(FIND("abc",A2)) for a case-sensitive check, or SEARCH instead of FIND to ignore case.

How do I find the second occurrence of a character?

Start the search just after the first one: =FIND("-",A2,FIND("-",A2)+1).

Practice FIND in these lessons

Guides that use FIND

Related functions

Updated