Reverse find in excel

This one is tested and does work (based on Brad’s original post):

=RIGHT(A1,LEN(A1)-FIND("|",SUBSTITUTE(A1," ","|",
     LEN(A1)-LEN(SUBSTITUTE(A1," ","")))))

If your original strings could contain a pipe «|» character, then replace both in the above with some other character that won’t appear in your source. (I suspect Brad’s original was broken because an unprintable character was removed in the translation).

Bonus: How it works (from right to left):

LEN(A1)-LEN(SUBSTITUTE(A1," ","")) – Count of spaces in the original string
SUBSTITUTE(A1," ","|", ... ) – Replaces just the final space with a |
FIND("|", ... ) – Finds the absolute position of that replaced | (that was the final space)
Right(A1,LEN(A1) - ... )) – Returns all characters after that |

EDIT: to account for the case where the source text contains no spaces, add the following to the beginning of the formula:

=IF(ISERROR(FIND(" ",A1)),A1, ... )

making the entire formula now:

=IF(ISERROR(FIND(" ",A1)),A1, RIGHT(A1,LEN(A1) - FIND("|",
    SUBSTITUTE(A1," ","|",LEN(A1)-LEN(SUBSTITUTE(A1," ",""))))))

Or you can use the =IF(COUNTIF(A1,"* *") syntax of the other version.

When the original string might contain a space at the last position add a trim function while counting all the spaces: Making the function the following:

=IF(ISERROR(FIND(" ",B2)),B2, RIGHT(B2,LEN(B2) - FIND("|",
    SUBSTITUTE(B2," ","|",LEN(TRIM(B2))-LEN(SUBSTITUTE(B2," ",""))))))

This tutorial talks about how to reverse search in Excel. There are two different methods to do this that I will explain in this tutorial. The methods use different formulas to do the same. One of these methods uses VBA code, while the other method makes use of the built-in Excel functions. Both the methods make it pretty easy to do a reverse string search in Excel.

Reverse searching can be a useful technique in case you want to find the position of a certain character or word from the end of a string. As Excel does not have any native formula to do that, so you will have to do it by yourself. Using the methods explained below, you can easily perform searches from the end of a string in Excel.

Searching in MS Excel files is nothing new, there are already some add-ins to search  and find in Excel sheets. But the search offered by them is a straight search; it cannot search in the reverse direction. That’s why I have listed the following methods to perform a reverse search in Excel.

As I said above, there are two different methods that I will use to perform a reverse search in Excel. In the first method I will use a user defined function that is written in VBA. And I will use some built-in functions of Excel in the second formula to do the same. Let’s have a look at them one by one.

Method 1: Reverse String Search in Excel Using VBA:

In this method I will show you how to perform reverse searches in Excel to find the position a certain character or a word from the end of a string. In this formula I will use a user defined function ReverseSearch, written in VBA whose syntax and code is given below. This formula receives two parameters, one for the source string and second for the word that is to be searched. After that it returns the position of the first character of the specified word from the end of the string.

ReverseSearch(Text_String, Word_to_Find)

See its VBA code here:

Public Function ReverseSearch(strBase As String, strTerm As String) As Integer
'Purpose: Returns the position of string from the end
Dim x As Integer
On Error GoTo ErrorMessage
If strTerm = "" Then
ReverseSearch = 0
Else
x = Len(strTerm)
ReverseSearch = InStr(StrReverse(strBase), StrReverse(strTerm))
ReverseSearch = (ReverseSearch + x) - 1
End If
Exit Function
ErrorMessage:
MsgBox "There seems to be an error."
End
End Function


You have to put the above code in VBA module of Excel. For that, click Alt+F11. In the window that opens up, right click on name of your Excel, click on Insert > Module. In the window that opens up, paste the entire VBA code I have given above. Then click on Save, and save the Excel as “Excel Macro-Enabled Workbook .xlsm” file. Then close the macro window.

Now, you can use the formula (that I highlighted in Red above) to do reverse search in Excel. You can see the below screenshot, showing the working of this formula.

In the above screenshot I have used this formula to find the position of a certain character from the end of the string. And also, I have used it to find the position of a specified word. You can see that it has resulted in the correct position of the specified word and character in both the cases.

This is a very simple method to do reverse search in Excel, as you just need to paste the VBA code, and then you can do as many reverse searches as you want. Just paste the VBA code once in the Excel macros and then you can use it anytime unless, you remove Excel from your PC.

Method 2: Reverse String Search in Excel Using Excel Functions:

In the above method I explained how to reverse search using VBA. Now, if you don’t want to use VBA functions or you find it difficult to use them in Excel, then there is another function that can do it for you. Using the built-in functions of Excel I have made another formula that can do reverse search in Excel. Though it’s a little bit tricky, but once you understand its functionality, then I am sure that you will like it. The syntax of this formula is given below.

LEN(Text_String) – SEARCH(“^^^”, SUBSTITUTE(Text_String, Word_to_Find, “^^^”, (LEN(Text_String)-LEN(SUBSTITUTE(Text_String,Word_to_Find, “”)))/LEN(Word_to_Find))) + 1

This formula uses Search, Substitute, and Len functions of Excel to do Reverse string search.

The way this formula works is that it finds the last instance of the specified substring and then replaces it with “^^^”, and returns its index. And after that, obtained index is subtracted from the length of the source string to get its position from the end. However, if your source string contains the sequence “^^^”, then this formula will fail and you will need to replace “^^^” in above formula to some other string (that doesn’t exist in your text).

After using this formula, you can easily find the position of a word from its first occurrence in the source string from the end. You can see the working of the formula in the following screenshot.

Now, after seeing this screenshot, you will get the idea how this formula works to find the position of certain word using the reverse search technique in Excel. Do note that this formula is made by using the built-in excel functions. So, if you don’t want to use an external formula written in VBA, then you may give this a try.

In this way you can perform a reverse search in Excel using this simple formula. Based on your needs, you can search a particular character or a word in your source string in your worksheet.

Also see: How to do Reverse vLookup in Excel.

My Final Verdict

There have been a lot of times when I had to do reverse string search in Excel. The first time I had to do I was very surprised to know that Excel does not provide any functionality to do reverse string search in Excel. And when I started looking for a solution, I wasn’t able to find any easy one.

Now, I have provided 2 solutions to you to do reverse string search in Excel. Both work equally well, and both give correct results. I personally prefer the VBA code, because it is simple to use. But if you want to stick to core Excel functions, then the second method works equally well.

In case you know some other ways to do reverse string search in Excel, do let me know in comments below.

Generally, when we try to find a particular sentence, we always try to find it by using the first words of the text, but if we clearly understand the data, we can see most of the sentences will start with the same words, but they always end with different words. So, by searching for sentences using the last words rather than the first words, we can return fewer results than if we used the first words. So, we can list the last words of the sentences using this process.

Read this tutorial to learn how you can apply the Reverse Find or Search function in Excel. This process uses the formulas supported by Excel to complete the task. The keywords in the formula are «trim» and «substitute». 

Applying the Reverse Find or Search Function Using Formula

Here, we will first get the first result using the formula, then use the auto-fill handle to get all the results. Let us see a simple process to apply the reverse find or search function using the formulas in Excel in a fast and efficient way.

Step 1

Let us consider an Excel sheet where the data present in the sheet is similar to the data present in the below screen shot.

Now click on an empty cell, which will be cell C2 in our case, and enter the formula as =TRIM(RIGHT(SUBSTITUTE(TRIM(A1), » «, REPT(» «, 99)), 99)) in the formula box and hit the «Enter» button to get the first result, as shown in the below image.

Step 2

As we can see, we have achieved the first result. We can get all the other results by dragging down from the right corner of the first result.

Conclusion

In this tutorial, we used a simple example to demonstrate how we can apply the Reverse Find or Search function in Excel to highlight a particular set of data.

In my research and tutoring excel, I have found that many people find the Reverse lookup concept to be among the top 10 complicated things in excel. This article hopes to shed more light than heat in demystifying the Reverse Lookup in excel.

In the normal lookup, we use the Column and/or Row header to return the value that falls in the intersection. But in the reverse lookup, we shall use the value to return the column and/or row header

For example, say you have below appointments Calendar and you want to lookup &  return the scheduled date & time for customer Joy Bell

There are 4 ways to carry out this kind of a Reverse Lookup;

1. USING INDEX & SUMPRODUCT

   =INDEX(D3:G3,0,
      SUMPRODUCT(--(D4:G14=I3)*(COLUMN(D3:G3)-COLUMN(D3)+1)))
   +INDEX(C4:C14,
     SUMPRODUCT(--(D4:G14=I3)*(ROW(C4:C14)-ROW(C4)+1)))

How it works:

The trick is to break down the formula into small parts;

1. INDEX(D3:G3,0,SUMPRODUCT(–(D4:G14=I3)*(COLUMN(D3:G3)-COLUMN(D3)+1))) this is the part that looks up the Date values in the columns

►SUMPRODUCT(–(D4:G14=I3)*(COLUMN(D3:G3)-COLUMN(D3)+1))  returns a column number given a criteria i.e.

• – -(D4: G14=I3) →returns an array of 1 & 0. 1 represents where the criterion is met

{0,0,0,0;0,0,0,0;0,0,0,0;0,0,0,0;0,0,1,0;
0,0,0,0;0,0,0,0;0,0,0,0;0,0,0,0;0,0,0,0;0,0,0,0}

• (COLUMN(D3: G3)-COLUMN(D3)+1)→ returns an array of relative positions of the columns

 {1,2,3,4}

SUMPRODUCT takes up the 2 arrays and  using the techniques of conjunction truth table returns 3

►INDEX(D3:E3,0,3) returns the value in column 3 given the range D3:E3= 13-05-2016

        2. INDEX(C4:C14,SUMPRODUCT(–(D4:G14=I3)*(ROW(C4:C14)-ROW(C4)+1)))  this is the part that looks up the Time values in the rows.

The breakdown of the formula is the same as explained above other than INDEX looks up the rows instead of columns.

When you combine the two parts you form a DateTime Value which you can custom format to fit.

=INDEX(D3:E3,0,3)+INDEX(C4:C14,5) = 13-05-2016  12:00:00 PM

2.Using an Array Formula (INDEX & MAX)

{=INDEX(D3:G3,
  MAX((D4:G14=I7)*(COLUMN(D3:G3)-COLUMN(D3)+1)))
+INDEX(C4:C14,
  MAX((D4:G14=I7)*(ROW(C4:C14)-ROW(C4)+1)))}

How it works:

1. =INDEX(D3: G3,MAX((D4: G14=I7)*(COLUMN(D3: G3)-COLUMN(D3)+1))) like in the SUMPRODUCT formula, this is the part that looks up the Date Value

►(D4: G14=I7)*(COLUMN(D3: G3)-COLUMN(D3)+1) this part generates an array of Column number where the criteria are met and zero for the rest.

{0,0,0,0;0,0,0,0;0,0,0,0;0,0,0,0;0,0,3,0
;0,0,0,0;0,0,0,0;0,0,0,0;0,0,0,0;0,0,0,0;0,0,0,0}

►MAX function returns the  maximum number in the array

MAX({0,0,0,0;0,0,0,0;0,0,0,0;0,0,0,0;0,0,3,0
;0,0,0,0;0,0,0,0;0,0,0,0;0,0,0,0;0,0,0,0;0,0,0,0})=3

►INDEX(D3:E3,0,3) returns the Date Value.

1. INDEX(C4:C14,MAX((D4:G14=I7)*(ROW(C4:C14)-ROW(C4)+1))) this generates the Time Value

The same breakdown works with the Time Value.

NB: This is an Array formula so remember to Ctrl + Shift +Enter

3. Using Array Formula (SMALL & IF)

{=SMALL(
   IF(D4:G14=I10,(D3:G3+C4:C14))
,1)}

This is the shortest and easiest to understand.

First, you need to understand how Excel stores date and time i.e. dates as serial numbers and time as a fractional portion of a 24 hour day.

Secondly, you need to understand that a  DateTime Value is just a sum of this Date serial Number and fractional Time Value.

►(D3:G3+C4: C14) returns a two-dimensional array of DateTime Value

{42501.3333333333,42502.3333333333,42503.3333333333,42504.3333333333;
42501.375,42502.375,42503.375,42504.375;42501.4166666667,42502.4166666667,
42503.4166666667,42504.4166666667;42501.4583333333,42502.4583333333,
42503.4583333333,42504.4583333333;42501.5,42502.5,42503.5,42504.5;
42501.5416666667,42502.5416666667,42503.5416666667,42504.5416666667;
42501.5833333333,42502.5833333333,42503.5833333333,42504.5833333333;
42501.625,42502.625,42503.625,42504.625;42501.6666666667,42502.6666666667,
42503.6666666667,42504.6666666667;42501.7083333333,42502.7083333333,
42503.7083333333,42504.7083333333;42501.75,42502.75,42503.75,42504.75}

►IF(D4: G14=I10,(D3:G3+C4: C14)) returns an array of the DateTime value that meets the criteria

{FALSE,FALSE,FALSE,FALSE;FALSE,FALSE,FALSE,FALSE;FALSE,FALSE,FALSE,
FALSE;FALSE,FALSE,FALSE,FALSE;FALSE,FALSE,42503.5,FALSE;FALSE,FALSE,
FALSE,FALSE;FALSE,FALSE,FALSE,FALSE;FALSE,FALSE,FALSE,FALSE;FALSE,FALSE,
FALSE,FALSE;FALSE,FALSE,FALSE,FALSE;FALSE,FALSE,FALSE,FALSE}

►SMALL returns the first smallest number in the array =42503.5

►Format the number “dd-mm-yyyy h:mm AM/PM” = 13-05-2016 12:00PM

4. Using  AGGREGATE

Other than INDEX & SUMPRODUCT combination this is the other NON-Array formula you can use to do this Reverse lookup

=AGGREGATE(15,6,((D3:G3+C4:C14)/(D4:G14=I14)),1)

How it works;

Watch these Videos on the AGGREGATE Function.

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