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.
Find
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.
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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.
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Use the question mark (?) to find any single character — for example, s?t finds «sat» and «set».
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Use the asterisk (*) to find any number of characters — for example, s*d finds «sad» and «started».
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Use the tilde (~) followed by ?, *, or ~ to find question marks, asterisks, or other tilde characters — for example, fy91~? finds «fy91?».
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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.
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Click Options>> to further define your search if needed:
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Within: To search for data in a worksheet or in an entire workbook, select Sheet or Workbook.
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Search: You can choose to search either By Rows (default), or By Columns.
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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.
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Match case — Check this if you want to search for case-sensitive data.
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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.
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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.
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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».
-
Use the tilde (~) followed by ?, *, or ~ to find question marks, asterisks, or other tilde characters — for example, fy91~? finds «fy91?».
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In the Replace with: box, enter the text or numbers you want to use to replace the search text.
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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.
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Click Options>> to further define your search if needed:
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Within: To search for data in a worksheet or in an entire workbook, select Sheet or Workbook.
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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.
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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.
Find & Replace dialog
Search bar and options
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Press Ctrl+F or go to Home > Find & Select > Find.
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In Find what: type the text or numbers you want to find.
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Select Find Next to run your search.
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You can further define your search:
-
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.
-
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.
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Tips: You can use wildcard characters — question mark (?), asterisk (*), tilde (~) — in your search criteria.
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Use the question mark (?) to find any single character — for example, s?t finds «sat» and «set».
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Use the asterisk (*) to find any number of characters — for example, s*d finds «sad» and «started».
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Use the tilde (~) followed by ?, *, or ~ to find question marks, asterisks, or other tilde characters — for example, fy91~? finds «fy91?».
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Press Ctrl+F or go to Home > Find & Select > Find.
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In Find what: type the text or numbers you want to find.
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Select Find All to run your search for all occurrences.
Note: The dialog box expands to show a list of all the cells that contain the search term, and the total number of cells in which it appears.
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Select any item in the list to highlight the corresponding cell in your worksheet.
Note: You can edit the contents of the highlighted cell.
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Press Ctrl+H or go to Home > Find & Select > Replace.
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In Find what, type the text or numbers you want to find.
-
You can further define your search:
-
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.
-
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.
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».
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Use the tilde (~) followed by ?, *, or ~ to find question marks, asterisks, or other tilde characters — for example, fy91~? finds «fy91?».
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In the Replace with box, enter the text or numbers you want to use to replace the search text.
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Select Replace or Replace All.
Tips:
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When you select Replace All, every occurrence of the criteria that you are searching for is replaced.
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When you select Replace, you can replace one instance at a time by selecting Next to highlight the next instance.
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Select any cell to search the entire sheet or select a specific range of cells to search.
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Press Command + F or select the magnifying glass to expand the Search bar and type the text or number you want to find in the search field.
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».
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Use the tilde (~) followed by ?, *, or ~ to find question marks, asterisks, or other tilde characters — for example, fy91~? finds «fy91?».
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Press return.
Notes:
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To find the next instance of the item you are searching for, press return again or use the Find dialog box and select Find Next.
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To specify additional search options, select the magnifying glass and select Search in Sheet or Search in Workbook. You can also select the Advanced option, which launches the Find dialog.
Tip: You can cancel a search in progress by pressing ESC.
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Find
To find something, press Ctrl+F, or go to Home > Editing > Find & Select > Find.
Note: In the following example, we’ve clicked > Search Options to show the entire Find dialog. By default, it will display with Search Options hidden.
-
In the Find what: box, type the text or numbers you want to find.
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».
-
Use the tilde (~) followed by ?, *, or ~ to find question marks, asterisks, or other tilde characters — for example, fy91~? finds «fy91?».
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Click Find Next or Find All 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.
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Click > Search Options to further define your search if needed:
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Within: To search for data within a certain selection, choose Selection. To search for data in a worksheet or in an entire workbook, select Sheet or Workbook.
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Direction: You can choose to search either Down (default), or Up.
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Match case — Check this if you want to search for case-sensitive data.
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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.
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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 > Search Options to show the entire Find dialog. By default, it will display with Search Options hidden.
-
In the Find what: box, type the text or numbers you want to find.
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».
-
Use the tilde (~) followed by ?, *, or ~ to find question marks, asterisks, or other tilde characters — for example, fy91~? finds «fy91?».
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In the Replace with: box, enter the text or numbers you want to use to replace the search text.
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Click Replace or Replace All.
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.
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Click > Search Options to further define your search if needed:
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Within: To search for data within a certain selection, choose Selection. To search for data in a worksheet or in an entire workbook, select Sheet or Workbook.
-
Direction: You can choose to search either Down (default), or Up.
-
Match case — Check this if you want to search for case-sensitive data.
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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.
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Need more help?
You can always ask an expert in the Excel Tech Community or get support in the Answers community.
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This wikiHow will show you how to find and replace cell values in Microsoft Excel. The Find and Replace tool is available in all versions of Excel, including the mobile Excel app.
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1
Open your workbook in Excel. You can open your project by clicking the File menu and selecting Open. You can also open it by right-clicking the file and selecting Open With > Excel.
- This method should work for all versions of Microsoft Excel beginning with Excel 2007.
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2
Click the Home tab. You’ll find this in the editing menu above your document.
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Click Find & Select. You’ll find this in the «Editing» grouping of the Home tab with the icon of a magnifying glass.
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Click Replace. This is usually the first listing in the drop-down menu.
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Enter the original value in the «Find what» text box field. This is the text that will be replaced.
- You can use * to find a string of characters. For example, s*d will find «sad» as well as «started.»[1]
- You can use ? to replace a single character in a search. For example, s?t will find «sat» and «set.»[2]
- You can use * to find a string of characters. For example, s*d will find «sad» as well as «started.»[1]
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6
Enter the new value in the «Replace with» text box field. This text will replace the original text.
- You can opt to match the case, so you can change every instance of «wikihow» to «wikiHow.»
- You can chose to contain your find and replace to the current worksheet or apply it to the entire workbook.
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Click Replace All or Replace. If you want to decide to replace each original value individually, choose Replace, but if you want to replace all the original values at once, choose replace all.[3]
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1
Open your project in Excel. This app icon looks like a green-and-white spreadsheet icon with an «X» next to it. You can find this app on the Home screen, in the app drawer, or by searching.
- If you don’t have the Excel app, you can get it for free from the App Store (iOS) and the Google Play Store (Android).
- Tap the Open tab in Excel to find all your recent documents.
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2
Tap the search icon
that looks like a magnifying glass. You’ll see this in the top right corner of your screen.
- A search bar will appear at the top of your document.
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3
Tap the gear icon
. You’ll see this next to the search bar that dropped down. Search options will appear.
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Tap to select Find and Replace or Find and Replace All. As you tap an option, you’ll see the search bar at the top of the screen change to fit your selection.
- Tap Find and Replace if you want to replace each original value individually.
- Tap Find and Replace All if you want to replace all the original values instantly.
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5
Tap Done (iOS) or X (Android). You’ll see this option at the top right of the search settings.
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Type your original value into the «Find» bar. This is the current value located in your document.
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Type the new value into the «Replace» bar. This value will replace the current value in the document.
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8
Tap Replace or Replace All. You’ll see this with your «find and replace» terms.
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wikiHow Video: How to Replace Values in Excel
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About This Article
Article SummaryX
To find and replace cell values on your computer, open your worksheet in Excel and click the Home tab. Click the Find & Select button on the toolbar, and then select Replace on the menu. On the «»Find and Replace»» window, enter the text you want to find into the «»Find what»» field. You can even use wildcards for a string of text. Wildcards are special characters that replace other characters in searches, like a question mark in place of a letter or an asterisk. In the «»Replace with»» field, type your replacement text exactly how it should appear. To replace all original values at once, click the Replace All button. If you’d rather approve each replacement, click Replace instead.
To replace cell values in the mobile Excel app, open Excel and select a file to edit. Tap the search icon at the top-right corner, and then tap the gear icon next to the search bar to view your options. If you want to replace multiple instances of the same text all at once, tap Find and Replace All. If you’d rather manually approve each replacement, select Replace instead. Then, Tap Done at the top-right corner. Now, type the text you want to replace into the «»Find»» bar, and the replacement text into the «»Replace»» bar. Finally, tap Replace or ‘Replace All to replace the cell values.
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Thanks to all authors for creating a page that has been read 18,537 times.
Is this article up to date?
To replace text or numbers, press Ctrl+H, or go to Home > Find & Select > Replace. In the Find what box, type the text or numbers you want to find. In the Replace with box, enter the text or numbers you want to use to replace the search text. Click Replace or Replace All.
Contents
- 1 What is the formula of replace in Excel?
- 2 How do you replace a character in Excel?
- 3 How do I replace multiple characters in Excel?
- 4 How do you use replace and substitute in Excel?
- 5 How do you write a Replace function?
- 6 What is the use of replace () function?
- 7 How do you replace part of a string in Excel?
- 8 How do I replace a space in Excel?
- 9 How do I replace blank value in Excel?
- 10 Can you find and replace in Excel formulas?
- 11 Why is replace function not working in Excel?
- 12 How do I replace just one column in Excel?
- 13 How do I find and replace an asterisk in Excel?
- 14 How do I remove a space in Excel formula?
- 15 How do I remove spaces and dashes in Excel?
- 16 How do I replace a blank cell?
- 17 How do I replace a spreadsheet?
- 18 How do you make a cell blank instead of zero?
- 19 How do you find and replace?
- 20 How do I find and replace only certain cells?
What is the formula of replace in Excel?
The Excel REPLACE function replaces characters specified by location in a given text string with another text string. For example =REPLACE(“XYZ123″,4,3,”456”) returns “XYZ456”. The altered text. old_text – The text to replace.
How do you replace a character in Excel?
To replace or substitute all occurrences of one character with another character, you can use the substitute function. The SUBSTITUTE function is full automatic. All you need to do is supply “old text” and “new text”. SUBSTITUTE will replace every instance of the old text with the new text.
How do I replace multiple characters in Excel?
Formula description:
The Formula =REPLACE(A1,1,4,”Excel”) means to replace 4 characters with “Excel” from the first character in A1, that is, to replace “Word” in A1, “Word” is exactly 4 characters.
How do you use replace and substitute in Excel?
Excel REPLACE vs.
The differences between the two functions are as follows: SUBSTITUTE replaces one or more instances of a given character or a text string. So, if you know the text to be replaced, use the Excel SUBSTITUTE function. REPLACE changes characters in a specified position of a text string.
How do you write a Replace function?
=REPLACE(old_text, start_num, num_chars, new_text)
The REPLACE function uses the following arguments: Old_text (required argument) – This is the text we wish to replace some characters. Start_num (required argument) – The position, within old_text, of the first character that you want to replace.
What is the use of replace () function?
The Microsoft Excel REPLACE function replaces a sequence of characters in a string with another set of characters. The REPLACE function is a built-in function in Excel that is categorized as a String/Text Function. It can be used as a worksheet function (WS) in Excel.
How do you replace part of a string in Excel?
What you need to do is as follows:
- Select the entire column by clicking once on the corresponding letter or by simply selecting the cells with your mouse.
- Press Ctrl+H.
- You are now in the “Find and Replace” dialog. Write “Author” in the “Find what” text box.
- Write “Authoring” in the “Replace with” text box.
How do I replace a space in Excel?
To replace spaces using Find and Replace:
- Select the range of cells containing text strings that include spaces you want to replace.
- Press Ctrl + H to display the Find and Replace dialog box.
- In the Find what box, type a space.
- In the Replace with box, type an underscore, dash, or other value.
- Click Replace All.
How do I replace blank value in Excel?
Step 1: Select the range that you will work with. Step 2: Press the F5 key to open the Go To dialog box. Step 3: Click the Special button, and it opens the Go to Special dialog box. Step 6: Now just enter 0 or any other value that you need to replace the errors, and press Ctrl + Enter keys.
Can you find and replace in Excel formulas?
5 Answers. If the formulas are identical you can use Find and Replace with Match entire cell contents checked and Look in: Formulas . Select the range, go into Find and Replace, make your entries and `Replace All.
Why is replace function not working in Excel?
If your find and replace feature is not working then you have to check that your worksheet is password protected. If it is protected then first you have to unprotect the worksheet. If you are still facing issue then you can contact to the customer care of MS Office via office.com/setup.
How do I replace just one column in Excel?
If you want to restrict Find & Replace in particular column then, you need to click the column’s alphabet to select entire column, Find and Replace will operate within that column only.
How do I find and replace an asterisk in Excel?
To replace an asterisk (*) in the data with a comma, you can use the Replace feature in Excel. In the Ribbon, select Home > Find & Select > Replace. Normally, when you use the Replace feature in Excel, you just type in the character you want to find, then the character you wish to replace it with.
How do I remove a space in Excel formula?
Using the Trim Formula
- Start by adding the Helper column to the end of your data, and name it “Trim.”
- In the first cell of the Helper column, enter the Excel formula to remove spaces =TRIM (A2).
- Copy the formula across all other cells as required.
- Now, replace the original column with the one that has clean data.
How do I remove spaces and dashes in Excel?
Below are the steps to use find and replace to remove dashes in Excel:
- Select the dataset from which you want to remove the dashes.
- Hold the Control key and then press the H key.
- In the ‘Find what’ field, type the dash symbol (-)
- Leave the ‘Replace with’ field empty.
- Click on Replace All.
How do I replace a blank cell?
Open your worksheet and either 1) select the data range to be changed or 2) select a single cell to change the entire worksheet. Choose Find/Replace (CTRL-H). Use 0 for Find what and leave the Replace with field blank (see below).
How do I replace a spreadsheet?
Use find and replace in a spreadsheet
- On your computer, open a spreadsheet in Google Sheets.
- Click Edit.
- Next to “Find,” type the word you want to find, If you want to replace the word, enter the new word next to “Replace with.”
- To search for the word, click Find.
- Optional: Narrow your search by using an option below.
How do you make a cell blank instead of zero?
Use the IF function to do this. Use a formula like this to return a blank cell when the value is zero: =IF(A2-A3=0,””,A2-A3)
How do you find and replace?
Find and replace text
- Go to Home > Replace or press Ctrl+H.
- Enter the word or phrase you want to locate in the Find box.
- Enter your new text in the Replace box.
- Select Find Next until you come to the word you want to update.
- Choose Replace. To update all instances at once, choose Replace All.
How do I find and replace only certain cells?
Select the range or cells you want to search or find and replace values within, and then press Ctrl + F keys simultaneously to open the Find and Replace dialog box.
Home > Microsoft Excel > How to Find and Replace in Excel? A Step-by-Step Guide
(Note: This guide on how to Find and Replace in Excel is suitable for all Excel versions including Office 365)
Have you ever faced a situation where you have to change a particular data in multiple places? Of course, you can choose to find and replace the data manually. However, finding and changing each data one after the other might be easy when the data are less. You will need an effective way to find and replace multiple data simultaneously.
In this article, I will tell you how to use find and replace in Excel along with its features.
You’ll Learn:
- What Is Find and Replace in Excel?
- How to Find and Replace in Excel?
- Additional Options to Find and Replace in Excel
Watch our video on how to use find and replace in Excel
Related Reads:
How to Calculate Factorial in Excel? Along with 2 Easy Examples
How to Graph a Function in Excel? 2 Easy Ways
Short Date Format in Excel – 3 Different Methods
What Is Find and Replace in Excel?
As its name suggests, the Find and Replace option in Excel is used to search for any particular data and replace it with the data of your choice. You can search for any number or string and replace them one after the other or replace all the data at the same time.
Additionally, Excel’s Find and Replace option allows you to use wildcards to find any missing data only by using a part of the data. And, you can also search between worksheets or whole workbooks.
How to Find and Replace in Excel?
Now, let us see how to use the Find and Replace option in Excel along with its functionalities.
In short, the Find option is mainly helpful when you want to find any particular data across multiple cells. The Replace option replaces the found data with any value of your choice. Using these options, you can find and replace the cells containing data across the spreadsheet or even the whole workbook.
Let us now see how the Find and Replace option works in Excel with an example.
Consider an Excel worksheet that consists of the consolidated mark list of 20 students for 20 subjects. There happened to be a small mishap in the validation process and the students who scored 100 marks should be changed to 99. So, you have to find the cells which house the value “100” and change them to “99”. This process can be a little tedious manually. In these cases, you can use the Find and Replace in Excel.
To find and replace the values, navigate to Home. From the Find & Select dropdown, click on Replace. Or, you can use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+H.
This opens up the Find and Replace dialog box.
In the Find what: text box, enter the value you want to find. In the Replace with: dialog box, enter the value you want to replace the found value with. In this case, we want to search through the worksheet to find the value “100” and replace it with the value “99”.
Once you have entered the value, you can see two buttons to help you find the data and the other two buttons to help you replace the data. Let us see them one by one in detail.
Find Next
This option finds the particular value and highlights them to the user one after the other.
When you enter 100 and click on Find Next, Excel searches through the sheet and shows you the first occurrence of the particular data. When you click on the Find Next again, Excel searches for the next occurrence of the data in the worksheet.
When just finding the data, Excel goes in loops displaying the same occurrences even after highlighting all the entries.
Find All
This option finds all the entries of the particular data and shows them to the user in an instant.
When you click the Find All button, Excel shows you all the cells that contain the particular value. You can scroll down and click on the value to display it in the worksheet.
If you want to see all the cells with the particular value at the same time, press Ctrl+A. This shows you all the entries of the particular value in the worksheet.
Note: If you want to only find the occurrences of the values without any need to replace them, just click on the Find tab in the Find and Replace dialog.
Replace
This option is used to replace the values in cells one after the other. This is particularly helpful when you have to confirm the values before replacing them.
When you first click on the Replace button, Excel replaces the first instance of the value with the value in the Replace with: textbox and highlights the next occurrence of the value.
If you click on the Replace button again, the highlighted value will be replaced and the next occurrence of the value will be highlighted.
Clicking on the Replace button replaces the values one after the other. If you don’t want to replace the particular value, click on the Find Next button. This will skip replacing the value in the cell and move on to highlight the next occurrence of the particular value.
Once you have replaced all the entries of the particular value, Excel will throw a pop-up saying “Excel couldn’t find a match”. Click OK to close the pop-up.
Note: If you only want to find and replace the values in Excel, you can straight away click on the Replace or Replace All button instead of finding the values using the Find Next and Find All buttons.
Replace All
If you feel like replacing the values one after the other is a little less effective, click on the Replace All button to replace all the values in one go.
This replaces all the values in the Find what: textbox with the value from the Replace with: text box.
Once you click on Replace All, Excel replaces all the data and throws a pop-up showing the number of replacements done. Click OK to close the pop-up.
Note: Always be very cautious when using the Replace All button because it changes all the occurrences of the particular value in the worksheet. If you ever feel like there might be some instances that need not be replaced, you can just use the normal Replace button to check and replace the values one after the other.
| Replace All | Replaces all the cells with a particular value. |
| Replace | Replaces the cell with the particular value one after the other. |
| Find All | This option searches and finds the total occurrences of the particular value in a single go. |
| Find Next | Find Next option searches and displays the occurrence of the value one after the other. |
Also Read:
Excel String Compare – 5 Easy Methods
How to Add a Secondary Axis in Excel? 2 Easy Ways
How to Wrap Text in Excel? With 6 Simple Methods
Additional Options to Find and Replace in Excel
Excel has various functionalities to Find and Replace the data in any way possible. Clicking on the Options button in the Find and Replace dialog box shows you advanced options to find and replace any data in Excel. Let us see each option and its functionalities in detail.
Format Option
This option enables you to set the format of the cells where you can search or replace the values.
Only when the format of the cell is the same as the format specified in the Find what: textbox, Excel finds and displays the value. The same is true for the Replace with: text box. When you specify any format in the Replace with: textbox, Excel changes the format of the cell along with replacing the value.
There are two ways to set the format criteria.
- Click on the Format button. This opens the Format Cells dialog box. Select the formatting of the cell and click OK.
- Click on the dropdown near the Format button and select Choose Format from Cell. This navigates to the worksheet and you can select any cell to copy its formatting.
You can also clear the formatting criteria from the dropdowns in the Find and Replace text boxes.
Within Dropdown
Using this option, you can change the scope of the Find and Replace option. You can either limit the functionality of the search to the current worksheet or the entire workbook.
Search Dropdown
By default, Excel searches for the value in the Find textbox in a row-wise manner. Using this option, you can assign the order of search either row-wise or column-wise.
Look in Dropdown
This option helps you specify the type of place where the find option has to search. You can choose to look for the data in formulas, comments, or cells with values.
Match Case
When the match case option is checked, Excel searches and finds only the values that pertain to the case and format as specified in the text box. Check this option if you want the search to be case-sensitive.
Match Entire Cell Contents
When this checkbox is checked, Excel only takes into account the entire cell content. Partial data of any data type is ignored and only the complete entry in the textbox is searched.
Using Wildcards
Use the wildcards to search for any missing values. You can use the * wildcard to replace any character between the first and last characters, whereas using the ? wildcard between any two characters replaces exactly one character. Additionally, when you have to search for * or ? character, you can use the ~ tilde character along with * or ? to search for their occurrences in the worksheet.
Suggested Reads:
How to Merge Cells in Excel? 3 Easy Ways
How to Calculate Percentile in Excel? 3 Useful Formulas
How to Select Non Adjacent Cells in Excel? 5 Simple Ways
Frequently Asked Questions
How to minimize the extended dialog box without closing the Find and Replace dialog box?
To minimize the extended partition when you click on the Find All button, navigate to the corner of the dialog box and drag to the edges to hide them.
What are the advanced features of the Find and Replace option in Excel?
Clicking on the Option>>> button enables advanced options. From here, you can set the format criteria according to your needs.
How to access the find and replace option in Excel?
You can access the find and replace option by navigating to Home and under the Find & Select dropdown, click on Replace. You can also use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+H.
Closing Thoughts
The Find and Replace function is really helpful and offers a variety of functionalities to help you search and replace data or values in Excel. You can search and replace any data in Excel irrespective of their data type or the cell formatting.
If you find this guide helpful and are looking for more guides, please visit our Excel resources center.
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I am trying to find and replace the * (star, or shift+8) character in a bunch of formulas in Excel 2007. * of course matches the ENTIRE contents of the cell, which is not what I want. How do I disable this behavior?
asked Aug 5, 2011 at 18:16
Find and Replace (CTRL + H)
Search for ~*
Replace with whatever.
Cheers!
answered Aug 5, 2011 at 18:45
rlemonrlemon
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If you are doing this in code, you can look for CHAR(42), which is the numeric code for the * symbol.
Depending on how you do it, you should even be able to use the CHAR(42) in a worksheet formula.
answered Aug 5, 2011 at 18:23
GSTDGSTD
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