Skip to content
xlsoffice. All Rights Reserved
  • Home
  • Excel For Beginners
  • Excel Intermediate
  • Advanced Excel For Experts

Lookup and Reference Examples

  • Complete List of Excel Lookup and Reference Functions, References and Examples
  • To count total rows in a range in Excel
  • Count rows with at least n matching values
  • How to get relative row numbers in a range in Excel
  • How to use Excel LOOKUP Function

Data Analysis Examples

  • How to calculate average last N values in a table in Excel
  • How to sum a total in multiple Excel tables
  • How to calculate current stock or inventory in Excel
  • Remove Duplicates Example in Excel
  • How To Sort One Column or Multiple Columns in Excel

Data Validation Examples

  • Excel Data validation number multiple 100
  • Excel Data validation unique values only
  • Excel Data validation specific characters only
  • Excel Data validation require unique number
  • Excel Data validation whole percentage only

How to check if cell contains one of many things in Excel

by

This tutorial shows how to check if cell contains one of many things in Excel using example below:

If you want to test a cell to see if it contains one of several things, you can do so with a formula that uses the SEARCH function, with help from the ISNUMBER and SUMPRODUCT functions.

Formula

=SUMPRODUCT(--ISNUMBER(SEARCH(things,A1)))>0

Explanation

Context

Let’s say you have a list of text strings in the range B5:B11, and you want to test each cell against another list of things in the named range “things” E5:E9. In other words, for each cell in B5:B11, you want to know: does this cell contain any of the things in E5:E9?

You could start build a big formula based on nested IF statements, but that won’t be any fun at all, especially if the list of things you want to check for is large.

Worked Example:   Count birthdays by month in Excel

Solution

The solution is to to create a formula that can test for multiple values and return a list of TRUE / FALSE values. Once we have that, we can process that list (an array, actually) with SUMPRODUCT.

The formula we’re using looks like this:

=SUMPRODUCT(--ISNUMBER(SEARCH(things,B5)))>0

How this formula works

The key is this snippet:

ISNUMBER(SEARCH(things,B5))

This is based on another formula (explained in detail here) that simply checks a cell for a single substring. If the cell contains the substring, the formula returns TRUE. If not, the formula returns FALSE.

However, if we give the same formula a list of things (in this case, we are using a named range called “things”, E5:E11) it will give us back a list of TRUE / FALSE values. The result is actually an array that looks like this:

{TRUE;FALSE;FALSE;FALSE;FALSE}

Notice that if we have even one TRUE in the array, we know a cell contains at least one thing in the list. So, we can force the TRUE / FALSE values to 1s and 0s with a double negative (–, also called a double unary):

--ISNUMBER(SEARCH(things,B5))

which yields an array like this:

Worked Example:   Sum if equal to one of many things in Excel

{1;0;0;0;0}

Now we process the result with SUMPRODUCT, which will add up the entire array. We know if we get a non-zero result, we have a “hit”, so we use >0 to force a final result of either TRUE or FALSE.

=SUMPRODUCT(--ISNUMBER(SEARCH(things,B5)))>0

With a hard-coded list

There’s no requirement that you use a range for your list of things. If you’re only looking for a small number of things, you can use a list in array format, which is called an array constant. For example, if you’re just looking for the colors red, blue, and green, you can use {“red”,”blue”,”green”} like this:

=SUMPRODUCT(--ISNUMBER(SEARCH({"red","blue","green"},B5)))>0

Preventing false matches

One problem with this approach is you may get false matches from substrings that appear inside longer words. For example, if you try to match “dr” you may also find “Andrea”, “drink”, “dry”, etc. since “dr” appears inside these words. This happens because SEARCH automatically does a “contains” match.

Worked Example:   Count sold and remaining in Excel

For a quick hack, you can add space around the search words (i.e. ” dr “, or “dr “) to avoid catching “dr” in another word. But this will fail if “dr” appears first or last in a cell, or appears with punctuation.

If you need a more accurate solution, one option is to normalize the text first in a helper column, taking care to also add a leading and trailing space. Then you use the formula on this page on the resulting text.

Post navigation

Previous Post:

How to check if cell contains all of many things in Excel

Next Post:

How to check if cell contains number in Excel

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
  • Complete List of Excel Text Functions References and Examples
  • How to use double quotes inside a formula in Excel
  • How to Check If A Cell Contains Specific Text in Excel
  • Join first and last name — Manipulating NAMES in Excel
  • Clean and reformat telephone numbers using SUBSTITUTE function in Excel
  • Get first day of month in Excel
  • MINUTE function: Description, Usage, Syntax, Examples and Explanation
  • Count times in a specific range in Excel
  • Add years to date in Excel
  • How to calculate months between dates in Excel
  • SYD function: Description, Usage, Syntax, Examples and Explanation
  • XNPV function: Description, Usage, Syntax, Examples and Explanation
  • YIELDMAT function: Description, Usage, Syntax, Examples and Explanation
  • Calculate original loan amount in Excel
  • COUPNUM function: Description, Usage, Syntax, Examples and Explanation
Acronyms, Abbreviations, Initialism & What They Stand For
© 2022 xlsoffice . All Right Reserved. | Teal Smiles