FIND

Finds one text string (find_text) within another text string (within_text), and returns the number of the starting position of find_text, from the leftmost character of within_text. You can also use SEARCH to find one text string within another, but unlike SEARCH, FIND is case-sensitive and doesn't allow wildcard characters.

Syntax

FIND(find_text,within_text,start_num)

Find_text—is the text you want to find.

• If find_text is "" (empty text), FIND matches the first character in the search string (that is, the character numbered start_num or 1).
• Find_text cannot contain any wildcard characters.

Within_text—is the text containing the text you want to find.

Start_num—specifies the character at which to start the search. The first character in within_text is character number 1. If you omit start_num, it is assumed to be 1.

Remarks

• If find_text does not appear in within_text, FIND returns the #VALUE! error value.
• If start_num is not greater than zero, FIND returns the #VALUE! error value.
• If start_num is greater than the length of within_text, FIND returns the #VALUE! error value.

Examples

FIND("M","Miriam McGovern") equals 1

FIND("m","Miriam McGovern") equals 6

FIND("M","Miriam McGovern",3) equals 8

Suppose you have a list of parts and serial numbers on a worksheet, and you want to extract the names of the parts, but not the serial numbers, from each cell. You can use the FIND function to find the # symbol and the MID function to omit the serial number. A2:A4 contain the following parts with serial numbers, respectively: "Ceramic Insulators #124-TD45-87", "Copper Coils #12-671-6772", "Variable Resistors #116010".

MID(A2,1,FIND(" #",A2,1)-1) returns "Ceramic Insulators"

MID(A3,1,FIND(" #",A3,1)-1) returns "Copper Coils"

MID(A4,1,FIND(" #",A4,1)-1) returns "Variable Resistors"