Excel SEARCH Function: Syntax, Examples and Tips

Part of the free Module 5: Excel Formulas and Functions · Function 76 of 105 · Full Excel course

The Excel SEARCH function returns the position of a text string inside another text string, ignoring letter case and accepting the wildcards * and ?. If the text is not found it returns #VALUE!. SEARCH is the flexible partner of FIND: use it when you do not know how the text will be capitalised or when you want to match a pattern rather than exact characters.

Table of Contents

Syntax

=SEARCH(find_text, within_text, [start_num])

Arguments

Argument	Required / Optional	Meaning
find_text	Required	The text or pattern to look for. ? matches any single character and * matches any sequence of characters. Use ~ before ? or * to search for the literal symbol.
within_text	Required	The text or cell in which to search.
start_num	Optional	The character position at which to begin. Default is 1. The returned position is still counted from the start of within_text.

How SEARCH works

SEARCH scans within_text from start_num and returns the position of the first match, counted from character 1. Case is ignored, so =SEARCH("excel","Microsoft Excel") returns 11. With wildcards, the match is the earliest position from which the pattern can be satisfied: =SEARCH("e*l","I love Excel") returns 5, because the pattern can start at the e in “love” and stretch to the l in “Excel”. An empty find_text returns start_num. Numbers are treated as text.

Step-by-step example: flag rows that contain a keyword

Column A contains product descriptions with mixed capitalisation, such as Wireless Mouse, Black and USB-C wireless keyboard.
In B2 enter =SEARCH("wireless",A2). It returns 1 for the first row and 7 for the second; case does not matter.
Type a description without the word in A4 and copy the formula down. B4 shows #VALUE!.
Change B2 to =ISNUMBER(SEARCH("wireless",A2)) and fill down. The column now shows TRUE or FALSE, which works cleanly with filters and COUNTIF.

Practical use cases

1. Categorise text by keyword

=IF(ISNUMBER(SEARCH("refund",A2)),"Refund",IF(ISNUMBER(SEARCH("invoice",A2)),"Billing","Other"))

2. Extract the text before the first digit

=LEFT(A2,MIN(SEARCH({0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9},A2&"0123456789"))-1)

Appending the digits guarantees every SEARCH finds a match; MIN picks the earliest position.

3. Wildcard match on a code pattern

=ISNUMBER(SEARCH("INV-????-2026",A2))

TRUE when the cell contains INV-, any four characters, then -2026.

4. Domain from an email address, any case

=MID(A2,SEARCH("@",A2)+1,LEN(A2))

5. Count cells containing a word

=SUMPRODUCT(--ISNUMBER(SEARCH("urgent",A2:A500)))

Common mistakes and tips

#VALUE! error: the text is not found, or start_num is 0, negative or beyond the text length. Wrap in ISNUMBER or IFERROR.
Searching for a literal asterisk or question mark: prefix it with a tilde, for example =SEARCH("~*",A2).
Need case sensitivity: use FIND, which distinguishes “Apple” from “apple”.
Whole words: SEARCH(“cat”,”category”) matches. Surround both texts with spaces, SEARCH(" cat "," "&A2&" "), to match whole words only.
Start position: the result is always relative to the start of within_text, not to start_num.

SEARCH compared with FIND

The two functions have identical syntax and both return the position of the first match. FIND is case-sensitive and treats * and ? as ordinary characters. SEARCH is case-insensitive and treats * and ? as wildcards. In practice SEARCH is the safer default for user-entered text, product descriptions and email addresses, where capitalisation is unpredictable. FIND is preferred for machine-generated codes where case carries meaning, and for text that legitimately contains * or ?, so you do not need to escape them. Performance is the same. If you later switch a formula from one to the other, no arguments need to change, which makes SEARCH and FIND easy to swap when the requirement changes.

Related functions

FIND: the case-sensitive version without wildcards.
MID: extracts text from the position SEARCH returns.
SUBSTITUTE: replaces the text once you know it is present.
ISNUMBER: converts a SEARCH result into TRUE or FALSE.
See all lessons in the Excel Formulas course.

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between SEARCH and FIND in Excel?

SEARCH ignores case and supports the wildcards * and ?; FIND is case-sensitive and treats those symbols literally. Their arguments and return values are otherwise identical.