SEARCH


Returns the position of a string of text within another string.

Syntax:

SEARCH(findtext, texttosearch, startposition)
returns the character position of the first occurrence of findtext within texttosearch.
startposition (optional) is the position from which the search starts.
The search is not case-sensitive.
A failed search gives the #VALUE! error.

Example:

SEARCH("yo", "Yoyo")
returns 1. The search is case-insensitive.
SEARCH("cho", "choochoo", 2)
returns 5.
SEARCH("t.n", "often")
returns 3, if regular expressions are enabled. The "." stands for any single character in a regular expression, so "t.n" matches "ten".
SEARCH("xyz", "abcdef", 1)
returns #VALUE!.
NOTE: This is an error condition, which must be 'handled' if used as the argument to another function.
IF( SEARCH("xyz","abcdef",1) , "Substring Present", "ERR: Missing Substring" )
returns #VALUE! which is not very useful, therefore we could use either ISERROR() or ISNUMBER() for example:
IF( ISERROR( SEARCH("xyz","abcdef",1) ) , "ERR: Missing Substring", "Substring Present" ).
returns "ERR: Missing Substring" ... allowing the IF() to function, and not propagating the error from the SEARCH() function.
IF( ISNUMBER( SEARCH("xyz","abcdef",1) ) , "Substring Present", "ERR: Missing Substring" ).
returns "ERR: Missing Substring" ... allowing the IF() to function, and not propagating the error from the SEARCH() function.

NOTE: In practice, it may be more maintainable to use ISNUMBER() to avoid negative logic, and it is more indicative of the evaluation desired: if the substring has a position, then ISNUMBER() is TRUE, else ISNUMBER() is FALSE.






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