Excel find and replace not in formulas

As far as I know, the Replace option has always had only the Formula option.
Unfortunately, if you just select that option, you will not only replace the values (which are equivalent to formulas), but also any value that happens to be a part of a formula (as, for example, part of a cell reference).

One work-around:

• Select the Find option with values and Find All
• Switch to the Replace tab
  • The found references should still be listed
• Enter your replace with value
• Select the locations listed in the find all box
  • This limits the Replace option to those cells only
• Replace all

Note If the values you are replacing are numbers, and not text strings, be sure to change the Find what: in the Replace dialog with the unformatted version of those numbers (what you would see in the formula bar or with the General format type).

So in your second screenshot, you can probably just hit Replace All but in other circumstances, you might want to select all those cells found (select a cell in the range and then ctrl+A)

Given your example data, you can just Replace with formulas and it will work, provided you use the non-formatted value:

Before

After

You can use a formula-based approach if you wish.

It hinges on the EVALUATE() function which will not work in cell formulas, but WILL work in a Named Range. EVERYONE can do this, EVERY version of Excel. Just type «=EVALUATE(» in a cell and it will look like it isn’t available, but do it right, in a Named Range and it’s good.

So create two Named Ranges, one for each condition. Call one «Formula» and create a Named Range with this in the «Refers to» box:

=EVALUATE(FORMULATEXT(Sheet1!A1))

and create another Named Range called «NotFormula» giving it this in the «Refers to» box:

=EVALUATE(SUBSTITUTE(Sheet1!A1,"*",""))

(If you select the cell next to the cell to work on, A1 assumed here, so park yourself in B1 while creating those Named Ranges which, if you’ll notice, use relative referencing. Choose where to be parked based on where the helper column will exist.)

Then use a «helper column» (etiher right there in the spreadsheets by the inputs, or on another sheet, even one added for this and then deleted. Enter the following formula in it:

=IF(ISFORMULA(A1),Formula,NotFormula)

If it IS a formula, then Formula is the result. If it is not, then `NotFormula is the result.

Formula gets the result of FORMULATEXT() and evaluates it, turning the text string it gives into an actual formula, at least in result if not «technically» so. It’s the only non-macro way I know of achieving that.

NotFormula simply uses SUBSTITUTE() to replace the asterisks. No need for the Find and Replace requirement of putting a tilde before the asterisk. Bear in mind that this process would produce a string in your example since the «1.43» would end up preceded by a space, but this method will make it a real boy, I mean a real number. Might be what you want, might not. If not, in the Named Range, wrap the function in a TEXT() function to preserve that space.

So, has to have a helper column. That means that if you do not want original and result side by side, but rather replacing the original, you’d need to copy and paste values over the original data, then delete the helper column. If you DO want side by side result and original, you’re gold already.

Remember though, you DO have EVALUATE() available, you just can’t use it in cells. You have to use it inside a Named Range.

Also, they have been saying for 27 years it could go away. If the «27 years» part does not convince you it is future-safe to use, there are some signs that other things depend on the old Excel 4 macro functionality, what underlaid those functions, not the functions themselves, and that Excel can never really ever get rid of them. So…

Watch Video – Useful Examples of Using Find & Replace in Excel

Last month, one of my colleagues got a data set in Excel, and he was banging his head to clean it. Since I was the only one in the office at that wee hour, he asked me if I could help. I used a simple technique using Find and Replace in Excel, and his data was all clean and polished. He thanked me, packed up, and left office.

He thanked me, packed up, and left office.

Excel Find and Replace feature is super powerful if you know how to best use it.

Using FIND and REPLACE in Excel (4 Examples)

Find and Replace in Excel can save a lot of time, and that is what matters most these days.

In this blog, I will share 4 amazing tips that I have shared with hundreds of my colleagues in my office. The response is always the same – “I wish I knew this earlier. It could have saved me so much of hard labor”.

#1 To Change Cell References Using Excel Find and Replace

Sometimes when you work with a lot of formulas, there is a need to change a cell reference in all the formulas. It could take you a lot of time if you manually change it in every cell that has a formula.

Here is where Excel Find and Replace comes in handy. It can easily find a cell reference in all the formulas in the worksheet (or in the selected cells) and replace it with another cell reference.

For example, suppose you have a huge dataset with formula in that uses $A$1 as one of the cell references (as shown below). If you need to change $A$1 with $B$1, you can do that using Find and Replace in Excel.

Here are the steps to do this:

1. Select the cells that have the formula in which you want to replace the reference. If you want to replace in the entire worksheet, select the entire worksheet.
2. Go to Home –> Find and Select –> Replace (Keyboard Shortcut – Control + H).
3. In the Find and Replace dialogue box, use the following details:
   • Find what: $A$1 (the cell reference you want to change).
   • Replace with: $B$1 (the new cell reference).
4. Click on Replace All.

This would instantly update all the formulas with the new cell reference.

Note that this would change all the instances of that reference. For example, if you have the reference $A$1 two times in a formula, both the instances would be replaced by $B$1.

#2 To Find and Replace Formatting in Excel

This is a cool feature when you want to replace existing formatting with some other formatting. For example, you may have cells with an orange background color and you want to change all these cell’s background color to red. Instead of manually doing this, use Find and Replace to do this all at once.

Here are the steps to do this:

1. Select the cells for which you want to find and replace the formatting. If you want to find and replace a specific format in the entire worksheet, select the entire worksheet.
2. Go to Home –> Find and Select –> Replace (Keyboard Shortcut – Control + H).
3. Click on the Options button. This will expand the dialogue box and show you more options.
4. Click on the Find what Format button. It will show a drop-down with two options – Format and Choose Format from Cell.
5. Now you need to specify the format that you want instead of the one selected in the previous step. Click on the Replace with Format button. It will show a drop-down with two options – Format and Choose Format from Cell.
6. Click on the Replace All button.

You can use this technique to replace a lot of things in formatting. It can pick up and replace formats such as background color, borders, font type/size/color, and even merged cells.

#3 To Add or Remove Line Break

What do you do when you have to go to a new line in an Excel cell.

You press Alt + Enter.

And what do you do when you want to revert this?

You delete it manually.. isn’t it?

Imagine you have hundreds of line breaks that you want to delete. removing line breaks manually can take a lot of time.

Here is the good news, you don’t need to do this manually. Excel Find and Replace has a cool trick up its sleeves that will make it happen in a snap.

Here are the steps to remove all the line breaks at once:

1. Select the data from which you want to remove the line breaks.
2. Go to Home –> Find and Select –> Replace (Keyboard Shortcut – Control + H).
3. In the Find and Replace Dialogue Box:
   • Find What: Press Control + J (you may not see anything except for a blinking dot).
   • Replace With: Space bar character (hit space bar once).
4. Click on Replace All.

And Woosh! It would magically remove all the line breaks from your worksheet.

#4 To Remove Text Using Wildcard Characters

This one saved me hours. I got a list as shown below, and I had to remove the text between parenthesis.

If you have a huge data-set, removing the parenthesis and the text between it can take you hours. But Find and Replace in Excel can do this in less than 10 seconds.

1. Select the data
2. Go to Home –> Find and Select –> Replace (Keyboard Shortcut – Control + H)
3. In the Find and Replace Dialogue Box:
   • Find What: (*)
     Note I have used an asterisk, which is a wildcard character that represents any number of characters.
   • Replace With: Leave this Blank.

I hope you find these tips helpful. If there are any other tricks that helped you save time, do share it with us!!

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