SEARCH Function in Excel: Position of Text (Any Case, Wildcards)

⏱ 1 min readUpdated 28 September 2026

TextLevel: IntermediateAvailable in: Excel 2007+

In this article
  1. Syntax
  2. Examples
  3. Example 1
  4. Example 2
  5. Related functions

SEARCH works like FIND but ignores case and accepts wildcards (? and *). With ISNUMBER it becomes a “contains” test.

Syntax

=SEARCH(find_text, within_text, [start_num])
Argument What it means
find_text Text to find; wildcards allowed.

Examples

Example 1

=ISNUMBER(SEARCH("urgent", F2))

TRUE if the note contains “urgent” in any case.

Example 2

=IF(ISNUMBER(SEARCH("cable", D2)), "Cable", "Other")

Categorise by keyword.

FIND · COUNTIF · IF

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