Excel if words match

Let’s say you want to ensure that a column contains text, not numbers. Or, perhapsyou want to find all orders that correspond to a specific salesperson. If you have no concern for upper- or lowercase text, there are several ways to check if a cell contains text.

You can also use a filter to find text. For more information, see Filter data.

Find cells that contain text

Follow these steps to locate cells containing specific text:

1. Select the range of cells that you want to search.

   To search the entire worksheet, click any cell.

2. On the Home tab, in the Editing group, click Find & Select, and then click Find.

   

3. In the Find what box, enter the text—or numbers—that you need to find. Or, choose a recent search from the Find what drop-down box.

   Note: You can use wildcard characters in your search criteria.

4. To specify a format for your search, click Format and make your selections in the Find Format popup window.

5. Click Options to further define your search. For example, you can search for all of the cells that contain the same kind of data, such as formulas.

   In the Within box, you can select Sheet or Workbook to search a worksheet or an entire workbook.

6. Click Find All or Find Next.

   Find All lists every occurrence of the item that you need to find, and allows you to make a cell active by selecting a specific occurrence. You can sort the results of a Find All search by clicking a header.

Note: To cancel a search in progress, press ESC.

Check if a cell has any text in it

To do this task, use the ISTEXT function.

Check if a cell matches specific text

Use the IF function to return results for the condition that you specify.

Check if part of a cell matches specific text

To do this task, use the IF, SEARCH, and ISNUMBER functions.

Note: The SEARCH function is case-insensitive.

A while back Vernon asked me how he could search one cell and compare it to a list of words. If any of the words in the list existed then return the matching word.

Ugh, I’ve written that 3 times and I’m not sure it’s any clearer…let’s look at an example.

I’ve highlighted the matching words in column A red.

What we want Excel to do is to check the text string in column A to see if any of the words in our list in H1:H3 are present, if they are then return the matching word. Note: I’ve given cells H1:H3 the named range ‘list’.

There are a few ways we can tackle this so let’s take a look at our options.

Warning: this is quite an advanced topic which requires an array formula to solve it.

Update: It’s easier and more robust to use Power Query to search for text strings, including case and non-case sensitive searches.

Non-Case Sensitive Matching

If you aren’t worried about case sensitive matches then you can use the SEARCH function with INDEX, SUMPRODUCT and ISNUMBER like this:

=INDEX(list,SUMPRODUCT(ISNUMBER(SEARCH(list,A2))*ROW($1:$3)))

In English our formula reads:

SEARCH cell A2 to see if it contains any words listed in cells H1:H3 (i.e. the named range ‘list’) and return the number of the character in cell A2 where the word starts. Our formula becomes:

=INDEX(list,SUMPRODUCT(ISNUMBER({20;#VALUE!;#VALUE!})*ROW($1:$3)))

i.e. in cell A2 the ‘F’ in the word ‘Finance’ starts in position 20.

Now using ISNUMBER test to see if the SEARCH formula returns any numbers (if it does it means there is a match). ISNUMBER will return TRUE if there is a number and FALSE if not (this gives us a list of Boolean TRUE or FALSE values). Our formula becomes:

=INDEX(list,SUMPRODUCT({TRUE;FALSE;FALSE}*ROW($1:$3)))

Use the ROW function to return an array of numbers {1;2;3} (see notes below on why I’ve used ROW in this formula). Our formula becomes:

=INDEX(list,SUMPRODUCT({TRUE;FALSE;FALSE}*{1;2;3}))

When you multiply Boolean TRUE/FALSE values they become their numeric equivalents i.e. TRUE = 1 and FALSE = 0. So our formula evaluates this ({TRUE;FALSE;FALSE}*{1;2;3}) like so: {1*1, 0*2, 0*3} and our formula becomes:

=INDEX(list,SUMPRODUCT({1;0;0}))

SUMPRODUCT simply sums the values {1+0+0} which gives us 1. Note: by using SUMPRODUCT we are avoiding the need for an array formula that requires CTRL+SHIFT+ENTER. Our formula becomes:

=INDEX(list,1)

Index can now go ahead and return the 1^st value in the range of cells H1:H3 which is ‘Finance’.

Note: the above formula will not work if a match isn’t found. If you want to return an error if a match isn’t found then you can use this variation:

=INDEX(list,IF(SUMPRODUCT(--ISNUMBER(SEARCH(list,A2)))<>0,SUMPRODUCT(ISNUMBER(SEARCH(list,A2))*ROW($1:$3)),NA()))

Not as elegant, is it? In which case you might prefer one of the array formulas below.

Notes about the ROW Function:

The ROW function simply returns the row number of a reference. e.g. ROW(A2) would return 2. When used in an array formula it will return an array of numbers. e.g. ROW(A2:A4) will return {2;3;4}. We can also give just the row reference(s) to the ROW function like so ROW(2:4).

In this formula we have used ROW to simply return an array of values {1;2;3} that represent the items in our ‘list’ i.e. Finance is 1, Construction is 2 and Safety is 3. Alternatively we could have typed {1;2;3} direct in our formula, or even referenced the named range like this ROW(list).

So you see using the ROW function is just a quick and clever way to generate an array of numbers.

What you must bear in mind when using the ROW function for this purpose is that we need a list of numbers from 1 to 3 because there are 3 words in our list and we’re trying to find the position of the matching word.

In this example the formula; ROW(list) will also work because our list happens to start on row 1 but if we were to start ‘list’ on row 2 we would come unstuck because ROW(list) would return {2;3;4} i.e. ‘list’ would actually reference cells H2:H4.

So, don’t get confused into thinking the ROW part of the formula is simply referencing the list or range of cells where the list is, the important point is that the ROW formula returns an array of numbers and we’re using those numbers to represent the number of rows in the ‘list’ which must always start with 1.

Functions Used

INDEX

SEARCH or FIND

ISNUMBER

SUMPRODUCT

ROW — Explained above.

Case Sensitive Matching

[updated Dec 5, 2013]

If your search is case sensitive then you not only need to replace SEARCH with FIND, but you also need to introduce an IF formula like so:

=INDEX(list,IF(SUMPRODUCT(ISNUMBER(FIND(list,A2))*ROW($1:$3))<>0,SUMPRODUCT(ISNUMBER(FIND(list,A2))*ROW($1:$3)),NA()))

Unfortunately it’s not as simple or elegant as the first non-case sensitive search. Instead the array formulas below are nicer

Array Formula Options

Below are some array formula options to achieve the same result. They use LARGE instead of SUMPRODUCT, and as a result you need to enter these by pressing CTRL+SHIFT+ENTER.

Non-case Sensitive:

[updated Dec 5, 2013]

=INDEX(list,LARGE(IF(ISNUMBER(SEARCH(list,A2)),ROW($1:$3)),1)) Press CTRL+SHIFT+ENTER

Case sensitive:

[updated Dec 5, 2013]

=INDEX(list,LARGE(IF(ISNUMBER(FIND(list,A2)),ROW($1:$3)),1)) Press CTRL+SHIFT+ENTER

Download

Thanks

Special thanks to Roberto for suggesting the ‘updated’ formulas above.

Normally, If you want to write an IF formula for text values in combining with the below two logical operators in excel, such as: “equal to” or “not equal to”.

Excel IF function check if a cell contains text(case-insensitive)

By default, IF function is case-insensitive in excel. It means that the logical text for text values will do not recognize case in the IF formulas. For example, the following two IF formulas will get the same results when checking the text values in cells.

=IF(B1="excel","yes","no")
=IF(B1="EXCEl","yes","no")

The IF formula will check the values of cell B1 if it is equal to “excel” word, If it is TRUE, then return “yes”, otherwise return “no”. And the logical test in the above IF formula will check the text values in the logical_test argument, whatever the logical_test values are “Excel”, “eXcel”, or “EXCEL”, the IF formula don’t care about that if the text values is in lowercase or uppercase, It will get the same results at last.

Excel IF function check if a cell contains text (case-sensitive)

If you want to check text values in cells using IF formula in excel (case-sensitive), then you need to create a case-sensitive logical test and then you can use IF function in combination with EXACT function to compare two text values. So if those two text values are exactly the same, then return TRUE. Otherwise return FALSE.

So we can write down the following IF formula combining with EXACT function:

=IF(EXACT(B1,"excel"),"yes","no")

Excel IF function check if part of cell matches specific text

If you want to check if part of text values in cell matches the specific text rather than exact match, to achieve this logic text, you can use IF function in combination with ISNUMBER and SEARCH Function in excel.

Both ISNUMBER and SEARCH functions are case-insensitive in excel.

=IF(ISNUMBER(SEARCH("x",B1)),"good","bad")

For above the IF formula, it will Check to see if B1 contain the letter x.

Also, we can use FIND function to replace the SEARCH function in the above IF formula. It will return the same results.

 Excel IF function with Wildcards text value

If you wan to use wildcard charcter in an IF formula, for example, if any of the values in column B contains “*xc*”, then return “good”, others return “bad”. You can not directly use the wildcard characters in IF formula, and we can use IF function in combination with COUNTIF function. Let’s see the following IF formula:

=IF(COUNTIF(B1:B4,"*xc*"), "good","bad")

---

• Excel IF Function With Numbers
  If you want to check if a cell values is between two values or checking for the range of numbers or multiple values in cells, at this time, we need to use AND or OR logical function in combination with the logical operator and IF function…

• Excel EXACT function
  The Excel SEARCH function returns the number of the starting location of a substring in a text string.The syntax of the EXACT function is as below:= EXACT (text1,text2)…
• Excel COUNTIF function
  The Excel COUNTIF function will count the number of cells in a range that meet a given criteria.= COUNTIF (range, criteria) …
  
• Excel ISNUMBER function
  The Excel ISNUMBER function returns TRUE if the value in a cell is a numeric value, otherwise it will return FALSE.
• Excel IF function
  The Excel IF function perform a logical test to return one value if the condition is TRUE and return another value if the condition is FALSE….
• Excel SEARCH function
  The Excel SEARCH function returns the number of the starting location of a substring in a text string.…

Getting IF Function to Work for Partial Text Match

In the dataset below, we want to write a formula in column B that will search the text in column A.  Our formula will search the column A text for the text sequence “AT” and if found display “AT” in column B.

It doesn’t matter where the letters “AT” occur in the column A text, we need to see “AT” in the adjacent cell of column B.  If the letters “AT” do not occur in the column A text, the formula in column B should display nothing.

Searching for Text with the IF Function

Let’s begin by selecting cell B5 and entering the following IF formula.

=IF(A5="*AT*","AT","")

Notice the formula returns nothing, even though the text in cell A5 contains the letter sequence “AT”.

The reason it fails is that Excel doesn’t work well when using wildcards directly after an equals sign in a formula.

Any function that uses an equals sign in a logical test does not like to use wildcards in this manner.

“But what about the SUMIFS function?”, I hear you saying.

If you examine a SUMIFS function, the wildcards don’t come directly after the equals sign; they instead come after an argument.  As an example:

=SUMIFS($C$4:$C$18,$A$4:$A$18,"*AT*")

The wildcard usage does not appear directly after an equals sign.

SEARCH Function to the Rescue

The first thing we need to understand is the syntax of the SEARCH function.  The syntax is as follows:

SEARCH(find_text, within_text, [start_num])

• find_text – is a required argument that defines the text you are searching for.
• within_text – is a required argument that defines the text in which you want to search for the value defined in the find_text
• Start_num – is an option argument that defines the character number/position in the within_text argument you wish to start searching. If omitted, the default start character position is 1 (the first character on the left of the text.)

To see if the search function works properly on its own, lets perform a simple test with the following formula.

=SEARCH("AT",A5)

We are returned a character position which the letters “AT” were discovered by the SEARCH function.  The first SEARCH found the letters “AT” beginning in the 1^st character position of the text.  The next discovery was in the 5^th character position, and the last discovery was in the 4^th character position.

The “#VALUE!” responses are the SEARCH function’s way of letting us know that the letters “AT” were not found in the search text.

We can use this new information to determine if the text “AT” exists in the companion text strings.  If we see any number as a response, we know “AT” exists in the text string.  If we receive an error response, we know the text “AT” does not exist in the text string.

NOTE: The SEARCH function is NOT case-sensitive.  A search for the letters “AT” would find “AT”, “At”, “aT”, and “at”.  If you wish to search for text and discriminate between different cases (case-sensitive), use the FIND function.  The FIND function works the same as SEARCH, but with the added behavior of case-sensitivity.

Turning Numbers into Decisions

An interesting function in Excel is the ISNUMBER function.  The purpose of the ISNUMBER function is to return “True” if something is a number and “False” if something is not a number.  The syntax is as follows:

ISNUMBER(value)

• value – is a required argument that defines the data you are examining. The value can refer to a cell, a formula, or a name that refers to a cell, formula, or value.

Let’s add the ISNUMBER function to the logic of our previous SEARCH function.

=ISNUMBER(SEARCH("AT",A5))

Any cell that contained a numeric response is now reading “True” and any cell that contained an error is now reading “False”.

We are now able to use the ISNUMBER/SEARCH functions as our wildcard statement in the original IF function.

=IF(ISNUMBER(SEARCH("AT",A5)),"AT","")

This is a great way to perform logical tests in functions that do not allow for wildcards.

Let’s see another scenario

Suppose we want to search for two different sets of text (“AT” or “DE”) and return the word “Europe” if either of these text strings are discovered in the searched text.  We will combine the original formula with an OR function to search for multiple text strings.

=IF(OR(ISNUMBER(SEARCH("AT",A5)),ISNUMBER(SEARCH("DE",A5))),
"Europe","")

Practice Workbook

Feel free to Download the Workbook HERE.

To search a string for a matching word from another string, we use the «IF», «ISNUMBER», «FIND» and «LEFT» functions in Microsoft Excel 2010.

IF: — Checks whether a condition is met and returns one value if True and another value if False.

Syntax of “IF” function =if(logical test,[value_if_true],[value_if_false])

The logical test is performed and if true, the value_if_true output is given, else the output in the value_if_false parameter is given.

For example:Cells A2 and A3 contain the numbers 3 and 5. If the number in the cell is 3, then the formula should display “Yes”, else “No”.

=IF (A1=3,»Yes»,»No»)

ISNUMBER: — In Microsoft Excel, “ISNUMBER” function is used to check if the value in the cell contains a number or not.

Syntax of “ISNUMBER” function: =ISNUMBER (value)

Example:Cell A2 contains the number456

                        =ISNUMBER (A2), function will return true

FIND:This function returns the location number of the character at which a specific character or text string is first found, reading left to right (not case-sensitive).

Syntax of “FIND” function:           =FIND (find_text,within_text,[start_num])

Example:Cell A1contains the text “Broncho Billy Anderson”

=FIND («Billy», A1, 1), function will return 9

LEFT: Returns the specified number of characters starting from the left-most character in the string.

Syntax of “LEFT” function:            =LEFT (text,[num_chars])

Example:Cell A1contains the text “Broncho Billy Anderson”

                        =LEFT (A1, 7), function will return “Broncho”

Let’s take an example to understand how we can search the string for a matching word from another string.

Example 1: We have 2 lists,in column A and column B. Weneed to match the first word in each cell in column A with column B.

Follow the below given steps:-

• Select the cell C2, write the formula
• =IF(ISNUMBER(FIND(LEFT(A3,FIND(» «,A3)-1),B3)),»1st Word Found»,»1st Word Not Found»)
• Press Enter on your keyboard.
• The function will search a string for a matching word from another string. It will compare the string in List 2 with List 1 and if found, it will return “1^st Word Found”, else it will return “1^st Word Not Found”.

• To copy the formula in all cells, press the key “CTRL + C” and select the cell C3:C4 and press the key “CTRL + V” on your keyboard.

This is how we can search a string for a matching word from another string in Microsoft Excel.

Author: Oscar Cronquist Article last updated on February 01, 2023

This article demonstrates several ways to check if a cell contains any value based on a list. The first example shows how to check if any of the values in the list is in the cell.

The remaining examples show formulas that also return the matching values. You may need different formulas based on the Excel version you are using.

Read this article If cell equals value from list to match the entire cell to any value from a list. To match a single cell to a single value read this: If cell contains text

To check if a cell contains all values in the list read this: If cell contains multiple values

1. Check if the cell contains any value in the list

The image above shows an array formula in cell C3 that checks if cell B3 contains at least one of the values in List (E3:E7), it returns «Yes» if any of the values are found in column B and returns nothing if the cell contains none of the values.

For example, cell B3 contains XBF which is found in cell E7. Cell B4 contains text ZDS found in cell E6. Cell C5 contains no values in the list.

=IF(OR(COUNTIF(B3,»*»&$E$3:$E$7&»*»)), «Yes», «»)

You need to enter this formula as an array formula if you are not an Excel 365 subscriber. There is another formula below that doesn’t need to be entered as an array formula, however, it is slightly larger and more complicated.

1. Type formula in cell C3.
2. Press and hold CTRL + SHIFT simultaneously.
3.  Press Enter once.
4. Release all keys.

Excel adds curly brackets to the formula automatically if you successfully entered the array formula. Don’t enter the curly brackets yourself.

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1.1 Explaining formula in cell C3

Step 1 — Check if the cell contains any of the values in the list

The COUNTIF function lets you count cells based on a condition, however, it also allows you to count cells based on multiple conditions if you use a cell range instead of a cell.

COUNTIF(range, criteria)

The criteria argument utilizes a beginning and ending asterisk in order to match a text string and not the entire cell value, asterisks are one of two wildcard characters that you are allowed to use.

The ampersands concatenate the asterisks to cell range E3:E7.

COUNTIF(B3,»*»&$E$3:$E$7&»*»)

becomes

COUNTIF(«LNU, YNO, XBF», {«*MVN*»; «*QLL*»; «*BQX*»; «*ZDS*»; «*XBF*»})

and returns this array

{0; 0; 0; 0; 1}

which tells us that the last value in the list is found in cell B3.

Step 2 — Return TRUE if at least one value is 1

The OR function returns TRUE if at least one of the values in the array is TRUE, the numerical equivalent to TRUE is 1.

OR({0; 0; 0; 0; 1})

returns TRUE.

Step 3 — Return Yes or nothing

The IF function then returns «Yes» if the logical test evaluates to TRUE and nothing if the logical test returns FALSE.

IF(TRUE, «Yes», «»)

returns «Yes» in cell B3.

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Regular formula

The following formula is quite similar to the formula above except that it is a regular formula and it has an additional INDEX function.

=IF(OR(INDEX(COUNTIF(B3,»*»&$E$3:$E$7&»*»),)), «Yes», «»)

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2. Display matches if the cell contains text from a list

The image above demonstrates a formula that checks if a cell contains a value in the list and then returns that value. If multiple values match then all matching values in the list are displayed.

For example, cell B3 contains «ZDS, YNO, XBF» and cell range E3:E7 has two values that match, «ZDS» and «XBF».

Formula in cell C3:

=TEXTJOIN(«, «, TRUE, IF(COUNTIF(B3, «*»&$E$3:$E$7&»*»), $E$3:$E$7, «»))

The TEXTJOIN function is available for Office 2019 and Office 365 subscribers. You will get a #NAME error if your Excel version is missing this function. Office 2019 users may need to enter this formula as an array formula.

The next formula works with most Excel versions.

Array formula in cell C3:

=INDEX($E$3:$E$7, MATCH(1, COUNTIF(B3, «*»&$E$3:$E$7&»*»), 0))

However, it only returns the first match. There is another formula below that returns all matching values, check it out.

How to enter an array formula

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2.1 Explaining formula in cell C3

Step 1 — Count cells containing text strings

The COUNTIF function lets you count cells based on a condition, we are going to use multiple conditions. I am going to use asterisks to make the COUNTIF function check for a partial match.

The asterisk is one of two wild card characters that you can use, it matches 0 (zero) to any number of any characters.

COUNTIF(B3, «*»&$E$3:$E$7&»*»)

becomes

COUNTIF(«ZDS, YNO, XBF», {«*MVN*»; «*QLL*»; «*BQX*»; «*ZDS*»; «*XBF*»})

and returns {1; 0; 0; 0; 1}.

This array contains as many values as there values in the list, the position of each value in the array matches the position of the value in the list. This means that we can tell from the array that the first value and the last value is found in cell B3.

Step 2 — Return the actual value

The IF function returns one value if the logical test is TRUE and another value if the logical test is FALSE.

IF(logical_test, [value_if_true], [value_if_false])

This allows us to create an array containing values that exists in cell B3.

IF(COUNTIF(B3, «*»&$E$3:$E$7&»*»), $E$3:$E$7, «»)

becomes

IF(COUNTIF(«ZDS, YNO, XBF», {«*MVN*»; «*QLL*»; «*BQX*»; «*ZDS*»; «*XBF*»}), {«*MVN*»; «*QLL*»; «*BQX*»; «*ZDS*»; «*XBF*»}, «»)

and returns {«»;»»;»»;»ZDS»;»XBF»}.

Step 3 — Concatenate values in array

The TEXTJOIN function allows you to combine text strings from multiple cell ranges and also use delimiting characters if you want.

TEXTJOIN(delimiter, ignore_empty, text1, [text2], …)

TEXTJOIN(«, «, TRUE, IF(COUNTIF(B3, «*»&$E$3:$E$7&»*»), $E$3:$E$7, «»))

becomes

TEXTJOIN(«, «, TRUE, {«»;»»;»»;»ZDS»;»XBF»})

and returns text strings ZDS, XBF.

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3. Display matches if cell contains text from a list (Earlier Excel versions)

The image above demonstrates a formula that returns multiple matches if the cell contains values from a list. This array formula works with most Excel versions.

Array formula in cell C3:

=IFERROR(INDEX($G$3:$G$7, SMALL(IF(COUNTIF($B3, «*»&$G$3:$G$7&»*»), MATCH(ROW($G$3:$G$7), ROW($G$3:$G$7)), «»), COLUMNS($A$1:A1))), «»)

How to enter an array formula

Copy cell C3 and paste to cell range C3:E15.

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3.1 Explaining formula in cell C3

Step 1 — Identify matching values in cell

The COUNTIF function lets you count cells based on a condition, we are going to use a cell range instead. This will return an array of values.

COUNTIF($B3, «*»&$G$3:$G$7&»*»)

becomes

COUNTIF(«ZDS, YNO, XBF», {«*MVN*»; «*QLL*»; «*BQX*»; «*ZDS*»; «*XBF*»})

and returns {0; 0; 0; 1; 1}.

Step 2 — Calculate relative positions of matching values

The IF function returns one value if the logical test is TRUE and another value if the logical test is FALSE.

IF(logical_test, [value_if_true], [value_if_false])

This allows us to create an array containing values representing row numbers.

IF(COUNTIF($B3, «*»&$G$3:$G$7&»*»), MATCH(ROW($G$3:$G$7), ROW($G$3:$G$7)), «»)

becomes

IF({0; 0; 0; 2; 1}, MATCH(ROW($G$3:$G$7), ROW($G$3:$G$7)), «»)

becomes

IF({0; 0; 0; 2; 1}, {1; 2; 3; 4; 5}, «»)

and returns {«»; «»; «»; 4; 5}.

Step 3 — Extract the k-th smallest number

I am going to use the SMALL function to be able to extract one value in each cell in the next step.

SMALL(array, k)

SMALL(IF(COUNTIF($B3, «*»&$G$3:$G$7&»*»), MATCH(ROW($G$3:$G$7), ROW($G$3:$G$7)), «»), COLUMNS($A$1:A1)))

becomes

SMALL({«»; «»; «»; 4; 5}, COLUMNS($A$1:A1)))

The COLUMNS function calculates the number of columns in a cell range, however, the cell reference in our formula grows when you copy the cell and paste to adjacent cells to the right.

SMALL({0; 0; 0; 4; 5}, COLUMNS($A$1:A1)))

becomes

SMALL({«»; «»; «»; 4; 5}, 1)

and returns 4.

Step 4 — Return value based on row number

The INDEX function returns a value from a cell range or array, you specify which value based on a row and column number. Both the [row_num] and [column_num] are optional.

INDEX(array, [row_num], [column_num])

INDEX($G$3:$G$7, SMALL(IF(COUNTIF($B3, «*»&$G$3:$G$7&»*»), MATCH(ROW($G$3:$G$7), ROW($G$3:$G$7)), «»), COLUMNS($A$1:A1)))

becomes

INDEX($G$3:$G$7, 4)

becomes

INDEX({«MVN»;»QLL»;»BQX»;»ZDS»;»XBF»}, 4)

and returns «ZDS» in cell C3.

Step 5 — Remove error values

The IFERROR function lets you catch most errors in Excel formulas except #SPILL! errors. Be careful when using the IFERROR function, it may make it much harder spotting formula errors.

IFERROR(value, value_if_error)

There are two arguments in the IFERROR function. The value argument is returned if it is not evaluating to an error. The value_if_error argument is returned if the value argument returns an error.

IFERROR(INDEX($G$3:$G$7, SMALL(IF(COUNTIF($B3, «*»&$G$3:$G$7&»*»), MATCH(ROW($G$3:$G$7), ROW($G$3:$G$7)), «»), COLUMNS($A$1:A1))), «»)

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4. Filter delimited values not in the list (Excel 365)

The formula in cell C3 lists values in cell B3 that are not in the List specified in cell range E3:E7. The formula returns #CALC! error if all values are in the list, see cell C14 as an example.

Excel 365 dynamic array formula in cell C3:

=LET(z,TRIM(TEXTSPLIT(B3,,»,»)),TEXTJOIN(«, «,TRUE,FILTER(z,NOT(COUNTIF($E$3:$E$7,z)))))

4.1 Explaining formula

Step 1 — Split values with a delimiting character

The TEXTSPLIT function splits a string into an array based on delimiting values.

Function syntax: TEXTSPLIT(Input_Text, col_delimiter, [row_delimiter], [Ignore_Empty])

TEXTSPLIT(B3,,»,»)

becomes

TEXTSPLIT(«ZDS, VTO, XBF»,,»,»)

and returns

{«ZDS»; » VTO»; » XBF»}

Step 2 — Remove leading and trailing spaces

The TRIM function deletes all blanks or space characters except single blanks between words in a cell value.

Function syntax: TRIM(text)

TRIM(TEXTSPLIT(B3,,»,»))

becomes

TRIM({«ZDS»; » VTO»; » XBF»})

and returns

{«ZDS»; «VTO»; «XBF»}

Step 3 — Check if values are in list

The COUNTIF function calculates the number of cells that is equal to a condition.

Function syntax: COUNTIF(range, criteria)

COUNTIF($E$3:$E$7,TRIM(TEXTSPLIT(B3,,»,»)))

becomes

COUNTIF({«MVN»;»QLL»;»BQX»;»ZDS»;»XBF»},{«ZDS»; «VTO»; «XBF»})

and returns

{1; 0; 1}

These numbers indicate if a value is found in the list, zero means not in the list and 1 or higher means that the value is in the list at least once.

The number’s position corresponds to the position of the values. {1; 0; 1} — {«ZDS»; «VTO»; «XBF»} meaning «ZDS» and «XBF» are in the list and «VTO» not.

Step 4 — Not

The NOT function returns the boolean opposite to the given argument.

Function syntax: NOT(logical)

NOT(COUNTIF($E$3:$E$7,TRIM(TEXTSPLIT(B3,,»,»))))

becomes

NOT({1; 0; 1})

and returns

{FALSE; TRUE; FALSE}.

0 (zero) is equivalent to FALSE. The boolean opposite is TRUE.

Any other number than 0 (zero) is equivalent to TRUE.  The boolean opposite is FALSE.

Step 5 — Filter

The FILTER function extracts values/rows based on a condition or criteria.

Function syntax: FILTER(array, include, [if_empty])

FILTER(TRIM(TEXTSPLIT(B3,,»,»)),NOT(COUNTIF($E$3:$E$7,TRIM(TEXTSPLIT(B3,,»,»)))))

becomes

FILTER({«ZDS»; «VTO»; «XBF»},{FALSE; TRUE; FALSE})

and returns

«VTO».

Step 6 — Join

The TEXTJOIN function combines text strings from multiple cell ranges.

Function syntax: TEXTJOIN(delimiter, ignore_empty, text1, [text2], …)

TEXTJOIN(«, «,TRUE,FILTER(TRIM(TEXTSPLIT(B3,,»,»)),NOT(COUNTIF($E$3:$E$7,TRIM(TEXTSPLIT(B3,,»,»))))))

becomes

TEXTJOIN(«, «,TRUE,{«VTO»})

and returns

«VTO».

Step 7 — Shorten the formula

The LET function lets you name intermediate calculation results which can shorten formulas considerably and improve performance.

Function syntax: LET(name1, name_value1, calculation_or_name2, [name_value2, calculation_or_name3…])

TEXTJOIN(«, «,TRUE,FILTER(TRIM(TEXTSPLIT(B3,,»,»)),NOT(COUNTIF($E$3:$E$7,TRIM(TEXTSPLIT(B3,,»,»))))))

z — TRIM(TEXTSPLIT(B3,,»,»))

LET(z,TRIM(TEXTSPLIT(B3,,»,»)),TEXTJOIN(«, «,TRUE,FILTER(z,NOT(COUNTIF($E$3:$E$7,z)))))

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