Excel find replace cell

What is Find and Replace Feature in Excel?

The Find and Replace feature of Excel looks for a data value and replaces it with another data value. This data value can be a text string, number, date or special character. The Find and Replace feature can search within a worksheet or workbook, by rows or columns, and within formulas, values or comments.

For example, in a financial report of Excel, the text string “asset” may need to be replaced with “assets.”

The purpose of using the Find and Replace feature in Excel is to locate certain information in a database. It also allows modifying the existing data values with a few clicks. By default, the Find and Replace excel feature looks for a partial match. But, it can also look for an exact match if the option “match entire cell contents” is selected.

How to Access the Find and Replace Feature of Excel?

The shortcuts to the Find and Replace excel feature are stated as follows:

• “Ctrl+F” opens the Find tab of the Find and Replace feature.
• “Ctrl+H” opens the Replace tab of the Find and Replace feature.

Alternatively, the “find” and “replace” options can be clicked from the “find & select” drop-down (“editing” group) of the Home tab. These options open the Find and Replace tabs of the Find and Replace feature of Excel.

Let us consider some examples to understand the working of the Find and Replace feature of Excel.

You can download this Find and Replace Excel Template here – Find and Replace Excel Template

Example #1–Find a Partial Match in a Worksheet

The following image shows two worksheets titled “Jan” and “Feb.” These worksheets contain datasets that report the sales made (column C) to different customers (column B) in January and February.

The names of the products, cost of goods sold (COGS), profits, and regions are also displayed in columns A, D, E, and F respectively. A similar dataset (with different numbers) is in columns H to M as well.

Find the name “Mitchel” in the worksheet “Jan.” Use the Find and Replace feature of Excel.

Difference between “find all” and “find next”: The “find all” option shows all the occurrences of the search value. Further, clicking any of the entries shown by this option takes the user to the corresponding cell.

The “find next” option helps scan through the different cells containing the search value. Clicking “find next” for the first time selects the first occurrence of the search value. Likewise, clicking “find next” the second time selects the second occurrence of the search value, and so on.

Example #2–Find a Partial Match in a Workbook

Working on the dataset of example #1, find the name “Mitchel” in the entire workbook. Use the Find and Replace feature of Excel.

The steps to search the stated string in the entire workbook are listed as follows:

Step 1: Press the keys “Ctrl+F” together. The Find tab of the “find and replace” window opens. Type the name “Mitchel” in the “find what” box.

Next, click “options,” shown within a black box in the following image.

Step 2: Clicking “options” expands the “find and replace” dialog box. Click the drop-down next to the option “within” and select “workbook.”

The selection is shown in the following image.

Step 3: Click “find all” to see all the results. The results are shown in the following image. This time the string “Mitchel” has been found in 16 cells of the workbook.

Clicking any of the entries will select the respective cell.

Example #3–Find an Exact Match in a Workbook

Working on the dataset of example #1, find an exact match of “Mitchel” in the entire workbook. Use the Find and Replace feature of Excel.

The steps to search the exact name in the entire workbook are listed as follows:

Step 1: Press the keys “Ctrl+F.” In the Find tab of the “find and replace” window, perform the following tasks:

• Click “options” to expand the “find and replace” window.
• Enter the name “Mitchel” in the “find what” box.
• Select “workbook” in the box adjacent to “within.”
• Select the checkbox of “match entire cell contents.”
• Leave the “search” and “look in” parameters to default values which are “by rows” and “formulas” respectively.

The name of the “find what” box and the selections are shown in the following image.

Note: When the option “match entire cell contents” is selected, the Find and Replace excel feature looks for exactly those data values that have been entered in the “find what” box.

Step 2: Click “find all” to view all the exact matches of the name “Mitchel.” In the current workbook, 8 cells contain the exact name.

The results (shown in the following image) display the cell references, exact value, and the names of the worksheet and the workbook.

Example #4–Replace the Range Reference of a Formula

The following image shows the names (column A), salaries per annum (in $ in column B), salaries per month (in $ in column C), and departments (column D) of some employees of an organization.

The total salary per annum is shown in cell G3. This sum incorrectly considers the range B2:B10 in place of the range B2:B22. Rectify the range of the formulas in cells G3 and H3 so that the total salary per annum is calculated accurately. Use the Find and Replace feature of Excel.

The steps to edit a formula by using the Find and Replace feature of Excel are listed as follows:

Step 1: Copy the SUMThe SUM function in excel adds the numerical values in a range of cells. Being categorized under the Math and Trigonometry function, it is entered by typing “=SUM” followed by the values to be summed. The values supplied to the function can be numbers, cell references or ranges.read more formula of cell G3. For this, perform the given tasks:

• Select cell G3. The formula [=SUM(B2:B10)] appears in the formula bar.
• Copy this formula by pressing the keys “Ctrl+C” together.
• Press the Escape (Esc) key once the formula has been copied. This will help exit the formula bar.

Alternatively, copy the formula of cell H3 by pressing the keys “Ctrl+C.” Next, press “Ctrl+H.”

Step 2: The Replace tab of the “find and replace” window opens. Paste the copied formula in the “find what” box, as shown in the following image. For pasting the formula, press the keys “Ctrl+V” together.

Note: Instead of copying and pasting, one can type the formula directly in the “find what” box.

Step 3: Enter the correct formula in the “replace with” box. So, type the formula “=SUM(B2:B22)” without the beginning and ending double quotation marks. This is shown in the following image.

Next, click “replace all.”

Step 4: Click “Ok” in the message stating the number of replacements made. The formulas of cells G3 and H3 change from “=SUM(B2:B10)” to “=SUM(B2:B22).” As a result, the total salary per annum changes.

The new output is shown within a red box in the following image. Hence, the total salary paid to the given 21 employees is $11,179,954 per annum.

Example #5–Replace the Existing Text to Make Two Strings Identical

There are two images titled “image 1” and “image 2.” Both images are in different worksheets. Further, the following information is given:

• Image 1 shows the product code (column A) and prices (in $ in column B) of 21 products of a multinational organization.
• Image 2 shows the product code (column A) and a blank column (column B) for the prices of the 21 products.

Notice that the product codes of both images consist of some letters prefixed to a number. The letters are different in both images, but the subsequent numbers are the same.

Make the product code identical in both images by using the Find and Replace feature of Excel. This will help fetch the prices of “image 1” in “image 2” (column B) with the VLOOKUP functionThe VLOOKUP excel function searches for a particular value and returns a corresponding match based on a unique identifier. A unique identifier is uniquely associated with all the records of the database. For instance, employee ID, student roll number, customer contact number, seller email address, etc., are unique identifiers.
read more.

Image 1

Image 2

The steps to make the product code identical by using the Find and Replace feature of Excel are listed as follows:

Step 1: Press the keys “Ctrl+H” to open the Replace tab of the “find and replace” window.

Step 2: Enter “pdc” in the “find what” box. Enter “prdct” in the “replace with” box. Next, click “replace all.” A message stating the number of replacements made is displayed. Click “Ok” to proceed.

The entries and the outputs are shown in the following image. Now, one can easily apply the VLOOKUP function to fetch the prices in this image. Had the replacements not been made, the VLOOKUP function could not have been applied.

Difference between “replace all” and “replace”: The “replace all” option replaces all the occurrences of the search value in one go. In contrast, the “replace” option replaces one occurrence at a time.

Therefore, use “replace” when not sure which occurrence needs to be replaced. Use “replace all” when all occurrences of the search value need to be replaced.

Example #6–Replace the Old Formatting of a Cell

The following image shows some departments of an organization. Cell A4 is in grey and cells B5, C2, and D5 are in blue. We want all the cells containing “marketing” to be in one color.

Therefore, replace the grey color of cell A4 with blue color. Use the Find and Replace feature of Excel.

The steps to change the formatting with the Find and Replace feature of Excel are listed as follows:

Step 1: Select the dataset whose formatting needs to be changed. We have selected the range A2:D6.

Next, press the keys “Ctrl+H” to open the Replace tab of the “find and replace” window. In this tab, click “options” shown on the right side.

This entire step is shown in the following image.

Step 2: Once “options” is clicked, the “find and replace” window expands. Click the drop-down arrow of the first “format” option (to the right of the “find what” box). Next, select “choose format from cell.”

The selection is shown within a black box in the following image.

Step 3: Select the cell whose formatting needs to be changed. We select cell A4. As a result, the “no format set” on the left of “format” changes to “preview.” This “preview” option reflects the color of cell A4, as shown in the following image.

Note: The “preview” option of the following image and cell A4 of the first image (at the beginning of this example) show a slight variation in color. Please ignore this variation, which may be due to different Excel versions being used to create images.

Step 4: Click the drop-down arrow of the second “format” option (to the right of the “replace with” box). Select “choose format from cell” and click any of the blue cells (B5, C2 or D5). Consequently, the “preview” option appears in blue, as shown in the following image.

Next, click “replace all.”

Step 5: Excel shows the number of replacements made. Click “Ok” to proceed. The output is shown in the following image.

Hence, cell A4 has also been colored blue. In this way, the formatting of a cell can be searched and replaced. So, we have searched for the grey color and replaced it with the blue color. Now, all cells containing “marketing” are in a single color.

Note: Alternatively, one can select the “format” option from both the “format” drop-downs. Thereafter, from the respective “fill” tabs, select the color to be searched and the color to be replaced with.

Example #7–Find a Comment in a Worksheet

The following image contains two datasets (range A1:D11 and range A13:D23) that show the gross sales (column B), cost of goods sold (COGS in column C), and profits (column D) of ten products of an organization. Further, the following information is given:

• Both datasets pertain to different time periods. The figures in brackets in column D are the losses suffered by the organization.
• In both datasets, each cell of column D contains commentsIn Excel, Insert Comment is a feature used to share tips or details with different users working within the same spreadsheet. You can either right-click on the required cell, click on “Insert Comment” & type the comment, use the shortcut key, i.e., Shift+F2, or click on the Review Tab & select “New Comment”. read more. This is indicated by the small, red triangles at the top-right side of each cell.
• There are three kinds of comments, namely, “no commission,” “commission @ 5%,” and “commission @ 10%.”

Find the comment “no commission” in the current worksheet, which has been renamed “comment.” Use the Find and Replace feature of Excel.

The steps to search a specific comment by using the Find and Replace feature of Excel are listed as follows:

Step 1: Open the Find tab of the “find and replace” dialog box. For this, press the keys “Ctrl+F” together. Next, click “options.” Make the following selections in this window:

• Select “sheet” and “by rows” in the “within” and “search” parameters. These are the default selections of Excel.
• Select the option “comments” from the drop-down of “look in.”

The selection of the second pointer is shown within a black box in the following image.

Step 2: In the “find what” box, enter the string of the comment that needs to be searched. We have entered “no commission,” as shown in the following image.

Next, click “find all.”

Step 3: The search results are shown in the following image. Notice that 13 cells (refer to the bottom of the image) contain the comment “no commission.”

The references to cells containing the specific comment (no commission) are displayed in the column “cell.” The formulas (of column D) and the names of the workbook and worksheet are displayed in columns “formula,” “book,” and “sheet” respectively.

Clicking any of the entries of these results will select the cell containing the comment.

The Key Points Related to the Find and Replace Feature of Excel

The important points related to the Find and Replace feature of Excel are listed as follows:

• The search can be limited to a specific range of the worksheet. For such restriction, select the range prior to opening the Find tab of the “find and replace” window. If no range is selected, Excel searches in the currently active sheet. If the search value cannot be found in the selected range or the active worksheet, a message stating the same is displayed.
• The replacements can also be restricted to a specific region of the worksheet. For this, select the area (or range) prior to opening the Replace tab of the “find and replace” window. If no range is selected, Excel makes the replacements in the entire active sheet.
• The Find and Replace excel feature can replace the existing formatting of cells with the new formatting. For this, make use of the two “format” drop-downs of the Replace tab.
• The search value can be looked up in a protected worksheet, but a replacement cannot be made. For replacing, unprotect the sheet first.

Frequently Asked Questions

Recommended Articles

This has been a guide to Find and Replace in Excel. Here we discuss how to Find and Replace in Excel using the shortcut keys along with practical examples and downloadable Excel templates. You may also look at these useful functions of Excel–

• How to Find and Select in Excel?Find and Select in Excel is a feature available on the Home Tab of Excel that facilitates the user to quickly discover a specific text or value in the given data. The shortcut key to instantly use this feature is Ctrl+F.read more
• FIND VBA FunctionVBA Find gives the exact match of the argument. It takes three arguments, one is what to find, where to find and where to look at. If any parameter is missing, it takes existing value as that parameter.read more
• Use FIND FunctionFind function in excel finds the location of a character or a substring in a text string. In other words it finds the occurrence of a text in another text, as it gives us the position, the output returned by this function is an integer.read more
• Not Equal to in Excel“Not Equal to” argument in excel is inserted with the expression <>. The two brackets posing away from each other command excel of the “Not Equal to” argument, and the user then makes excel checks if two values are not equal to each other.read more

Find or replace text and numbers on a worksheet

Use the Find and Replace features in Excel to search for something in your workbook, such as a particular number or text string. You can either locate the search item for reference, or you can replace it with something else. You can include wildcard characters such as question marks, tildes, and asterisks, or numbers in your search terms. You can search by rows and columns, search within comments or values, and search within worksheets or entire workbooks.

Tip: You can also use formulas to replace text. Check out the SUBSTITUTE function or REPLACE, REPLACEB functions to learn more.

To find something, press Ctrl+F, or go to Home > Editing > Find & Select > Find.

Note: In the following example, we’ve clicked the Options >> button to show the entire Find dialog. By default, it will display with Options hidden.

In the Find what: box, type the text or numbers you want to find, or click the arrow in the Find what: box, and then select a recent search item from the list.

Tips: You can use wildcard characters — question mark ( ?), asterisk ( *), tilde (

) — in your search criteria.

Use the question mark (?) to find any single character — for example, s?t finds «sat» and «set».

Use the asterisk (*) to find any number of characters — for example, s*d finds «sad» and «started».

) followed by ?, *, or

to find question marks, asterisks, or other tilde characters — for example, fy91

Click Find All or Find Next to run your search.

Tip: When you click Find All, every occurrence of the criteria that you are searching for will be listed, and clicking a specific occurrence in the list will select its cell. You can sort the results of a Find All search by clicking a column heading.

Click Options>> to further define your search if needed:

Within: To search for data in a worksheet or in an entire workbook, select Sheet or Workbook.

Search: You can choose to search either By Rows (default), or By Columns.

Look in: To search for data with specific details, in the box, click Formulas, Values, Notes, or Comments.

Note: Formulas, Values, Notes and Comments are only available on the Find tab; only Formulas are available on the Replace tab.

Match case — Check this if you want to search for case-sensitive data.

Match entire cell contents — Check this if you want to search for cells that contain just the characters that you typed in the Find what: box.

If you want to search for text or numbers with specific formatting, click Format, and then make your selections in the Find Format dialog box.

Tip: If you want to find cells that just match a specific format, you can delete any criteria in the Find what box, and then select a specific cell format as an example. Click the arrow next to Format, click Choose Format From Cell, and then click the cell that has the formatting that you want to search for.

Replace

To replace text or numbers, press Ctrl+H, or go to Home > Editing > Find & Select > Replace.

Note: In the following example, we’ve clicked the Options >> button to show the entire Find dialog. By default, it will display with Options hidden.

In the Find what: box, type the text or numbers you want to find, or click the arrow in the Find what: box, and then select a recent search item from the list.

Tips: You can use wildcard characters — question mark ( ?), asterisk ( *), tilde (

) — in your search criteria.

Use the question mark (?) to find any single character — for example, s?t finds «sat» and «set».

Use the asterisk (*) to find any number of characters — for example, s*d finds «sad» and «started».

) followed by ?, *, or

to find question marks, asterisks, or other tilde characters — for example, fy91

In the Replace with: box, enter the text or numbers you want to use to replace the search text.

Click Replace All or Replace.

Tip: When you click Replace All, every occurrence of the criteria that you are searching for will be replaced, while Replace will update one occurrence at a time.

Click Options>> to further define your search if needed:

Within: To search for data in a worksheet or in an entire workbook, select Sheet or Workbook.

Search: You can choose to search either By Rows (default), or By Columns.

Look in: To search for data with specific details, in the box, click Formulas, Values, Notes, or Comments.

Note: Formulas, Values, Notes and Comments are only available on the Find tab; only Formulas are available on the Replace tab.

Match case — Check this if you want to search for case-sensitive data.

Match entire cell contents — Check this if you want to search for cells that contain just the characters that you typed in the Find what: box.

If you want to search for text or numbers with specific formatting, click Format, and then make your selections in the Find Format dialog box.

Tip: If you want to find cells that just match a specific format, you can delete any criteria in the Find what box, and then select a specific cell format as an example. Click the arrow next to Format, click Choose Format From Cell, and then click the cell that has the formatting that you want to search for.

There are two distinct methods for finding or replacing text or numbers on the Mac. The first is to use the Find & Replace dialog. The second is to use the Search bar in the ribbon.

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Get more out of Find and Replace in Excel (4 Amazing Tips)

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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