To only search for a capital "A" and ignore "a", the formula is: IF(ISNUMBER(FIND(" text", cell)), value_if_true, value_if_false)Īs both functions are designed to perform a "cell contains" type of match, wildcards aren't really needed in this case.įor example, to detect IDs containing "A" or "a", the formula is: So, depending on whether you want to treat lowercase and uppercase as the same or different characters, one of these formulas will work a treat:Ĭase-insensitive formula for partial match: The difference is that FIND is case-sensitive while SEARCH is not. IF ISNUMBER SEARCH formula for partial matchesĪnother way to force Excel IF to work for partial text match is to include either the FIND or SEARCH function in the logical test. Given that 1 equates to TRUE and 0 to FALSE, the formula returns "Valid" (value_if_true) when the count is 1 and an empty string (value_if_false) when the count is 0. Since the criteria range is a single cell (A2), the result is always 1 (match is found) or 0 (match is not found). Assuming only the IDs consisting of 2 groups of 2 characters separated with a hyphen are valid, you can use the "?-?" wildcard string to identify them:įor the logical test of IF, we use the COUNTIF function that counts the number of cells matching the specified wildcard string. This solution can also be used to locate strings of a specific pattern.
This formula goes to B2, or any other cell in row 2, and then you can drag it down to as many cells as needed: With this approach, IF has no problem with understanding wildcards and flawlessly identifies the cells that contain either "A" or "a" (since COUNTIF is not case-sensitive): IF(COUNTIF( cell, "* text*"), value_if_true, value_if_false) For this, we'll simply embed a function that accepts wildcards in the logical test of IF, namely the COUNTIF function: Now that you know the reason why a wildcard IF formula fails, let's try to figure out how to get it to work. =COUNTIF(A2:A10, "*a*") Excel IF contains partial text Taking a closer look at the list of functions supporting wildcards, you will notice that their syntax assumes a wildcard text to appear directly in an argument like this: Why does a wildcard IF statement fail? From all appearances, Excel doesn't recognize wildcards used with an equal sign or other logical operators. The formula returns "No" for all the cells, even those that contain "A": It seems like including wildcard text in the logical test would be an easy solution:īut regrettably it does not work. If found - display "Yes" in column B, if not - display "No". In the sample table below, supposing you want to check whether the IDs in the first column contain the letter "A". Why Excel IF function with wildcard not working
Why Excel IF function with wildcard not working.Luckily, it is not the obstacle that can stop a creative Excel user :) By combining IF with other functions, you can force it to evaluate a partial match and get a nice alternative to an Excel IF wildcard formula. This is especially disappointing considering that other "conditional" functions such as COUNTIF, SUMIF, and AVERAGEIFS work with wildcards perfectly well. But what if a specific function that you need to use does not support wildcards characters? Sadly, Excel IF is one of such functions. Whenever you want to perform partial or fuzzy matching in Excel, the most obvious solution is to use wildcards. However, there is a way to get it to work for partial text match, and this tutorial will teach you how. Trying to build an IF statement with wildcard text, but it fails every time? The problem is not in your formula but in the function itself - Excel IF does not support wildcard characters.
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