Skip to content
Free Excel Tutorials
  • Home
  • Excel For Beginners
  • Excel Intermediate
  • Advanced Excel For Experts

Data Analysis

  • Example of COUNTIFS with variable table column in Excel
  • How to create Checklist in Excel
  • How to Create Area Chart in Excel
  • How to calculate current stock or inventory in Excel
  • How to create running total in an Excel Table

References

  • Extract data with helper column in Excel
  • Lookup entire row in Excel
  • How to get first row number in range in Excel
  • Offset in Excel
  • How to get address of named range in Excel

Data Validations

  • Excel Data validation must contain specific text
  • Excel Data validation no punctuation
  • Excel Data validation allow uppercase only
  • Excel Data validation must begin with
  • Prevent invalid data entering in specific cells

If cell contains in Excel

by

This tutorial shows how to calculate If cell contains in Excel using the example below;

If you want to copy cells that contain certain text, you can use a formula that uses the IF function together with the SEARCH and ISNUMBER functions.

Formula

=IF(ISNUMBER(SEARCH("abc",A1)),A1,"")

Explanation

Once you find a value you’re looking for you can copy it to another location, or display a message, or perform some other calculation.

Too complicated? Just need a formula for If cell equals?

If cell contains “abc”, copy it elsewhere

In the example shown, we have a list of email addresses, and we want to copy those that contain “abc”. In  C5, the formula were using is this:

=IF(ISNUMBER(SEARCH("abc",B5)),B5,"")

In this formula, the logical test is this bit:

ISNUMBER(SEARCH("abc",B5))

This will return TRUE if the the value in B5 contains “abc” and false if not. See the cell contains specific text formula for a full explanation.

To copy cell B5 if TRUE, we just need to supply B5 again for the “value if true” argument. If false, we supply an empty string (“”) which will display as a blank cell on the worksheet.

Post navigation

Previous Post:

COSH function: Description, Usage, Syntax, Examples and Explanation

Next Post:

Excel Data validation require unique number

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Learn Basic Excel

Ribbon
Workbook
Worksheets
Format Cells
Find & Select
Sort & Filter
Templates
Print
Share
Protect
Keyboard Shortcuts

Categories

  • Charts
  • Data Analysis
  • Data Validation
  • Excel Functions
    • Cube Functions
    • Database Functions
    • Date and Time Functions
    • Engineering Functions
    • Financial Functions
    • Information Functions
    • Logical Functions
    • Lookup and Reference Functions
    • Math and Trig Functions
    • Statistical Functions
    • Text Functions
    • Web Functions
  • Excel VBA
  • Excel Video Tutorials
  • Formatting
  • Grouping
  • Others

Logical Functions

  • IFERROR function: Description, Usage, Syntax, Examples and Explanation
  • How to use Excel AND Function
  • Check multiple cells are equal in Excel
  • Nested IF function example in Excel
  • IF function: Description, Usage, Syntax, Examples and Explanation

Date Time

  • Get days between dates in Excel
  • How to Calculate Age in Excel
  • Count dates in current month in Excel
  • SECOND function: Description, Usage, Syntax, Examples and Explanation
  • Add decimal hours to time in Excel

Grouping

  • If cell contains one of many things in Excel
  • How to randomly assign data to groups in Excel
  • Group times into unequal buckets in Excel
  • Running count group by n size in Excel
  • Group times into 3 hour buckets in Excel

General

  • How to count total columns in range in Excel
  • How to get random value from list or table in Excel
  • Count cells less than in Excel
  • List sheet names with formula in Excel
  • Basic error trapping example in Excel
© 2025 xlsoffice . All Right Reserved. | Teal Smiles | Abbreviations And Their Meaning