Returns the position at which a string is first found within text, ignoring case.
Sample Usage
SEARCH("n",A2)
SEARCH("wood","How much wood can a woodchuck chuck",14)
Syntax
SEARCH(search_for, text_to_search, [starting_at])
search_for
- The string to look for withintext_to_search
.text_to_search
- The text to search for the first occurrence ofsearch_for
.starting_at
- [ OPTIONAL -1
by default ] - The character withintext_to_search
at which to start the search.
Notes
SEARCH
is not case-sensitive, meaning that uppercase and lowercase letters do not matter. For example, “abc” will match “ABC”. To compare text where case matters, use the FIND function.- Ensure that
search_for
andtext_to_search
are not supplied in reverse order, or the#VALUE!
error will likely be returned. The arguments are supplied in a different order than other text functions such as SPLIT and SUBSTITUTE. - It’s recommended to use a function such as IFERROR to check for cases when there aren’t matches to the search.
See Also
SUBSTITUTE: Replaces existing text with new text in a string.
SPLIT: Divides text around a specified character or string, and puts each fragment into a separate cell in the row.
FIND: Returns the position at which a string is first found within text, case-sensitive.
IFERROR: Returns the first argument if it is not an error value, otherwise returns the second argument if present, or a blank if the second argument is absent.