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 sum a total in multiple Excel tables
  • Calculate Conditional Percentile ‘IF’ in table in Excel
  • How to combine 2 or more chart types in a single chart in Excel
  • How to add Trendline to a chart in Excel

References

  • How to calculate two-way lookup VLOOKUP in Excel Table
  • Vlookup Examples in Excel
  • How to use Excel VLOOKUP Function
  • How to get relative column numbers in a range in Excel
  • How to use Excel FORMULATEXT function

Data Validations

  • Data validation must not exist in list
  • Excel Data validation with conditional list
  • Excel Data validation date in next 30 days
  • Excel Data validation exists in list
  • Excel Data validation allow weekday only

If cell contains one of many things in Excel

by

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

Formula

{=INDEX(results,MATCH(TRUE,ISNUMBER
(SEARCH(things,A1)),0))}

Explanation

To test a cell for one of several things, and return a custom result for the first match found, you can use an INDEX / MATCH formula based on the SEARCH function.

In the example shown, the formula in C5 is:

{=INDEX(results,MATCH(TRUE,
ISNUMBER(SEARCH(things,B5)),0))}

This is an array formula and must be entered with Control + Shift + Enter.

How this formula works

This formula uses two named ranges: E5:E8 is named “things”, and F5:F8 is named “results”. Make sure you use name ranges with the same names (based on your data). If you don’t want to use named ranges, use absolute references instead.

The core of this formula is this snippet:

ISNUMBER(SEARCH(things,B5)

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

Because we give SEARCH more than one thing to look for, it will give us back a list of results, in an array that looks like this:

{#VALUE!;9;#VALUE!;#VALUE!}

To simply the array, we use the  ISNUMBER function to convert all items in the array to either TRUE or FALSE. Any valid number becomes TRUE, and any error (i.e. a thing not found) becomes FALSE. The result is an array like this:

{FALSE;TRUE;FALSE;FALSE}

Which goes into the MATCH function as the “lookup_array”, with a “lookup_value” of TRUE.

MATCH then returns the position of first TRUE found (in this case is 2).

Finally, we use INDEX to retrieve a result from the named range “results” at that same position.

This approach lets you populate the “results” range with whatever values you want.

Preventing false matches

One problem with this approach with the ISNUMBER + SEARCH approach is you may get false matches from partial matches inside longer words. For example, if you try to match “dr” you may also find “Andrea”, “drank”, “drip”, etc. since “dr” appears inside these words. This happens because SEARCH automatically does a “contains-type” match.

For a quick fix, you can wrap search words in space characters (i.e. ” dr “, or “dr “) to avoid finding “dr” in another word. But this will fail if “dr” appears first or last in a cell.

If you need a more robust solution, one option is to normalize the text first in a helper column, and add a leading and trailing space. Then use the formula on this page on the text in the helper column, instead of the original text.

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

  • How to use Excel OR Function
  • Return blank if in Excel
  • How to return blank in place of #DIV/0! error in Excel
  • IF, AND, OR and NOT Functions Examples in Excel
  • OR function Examples in Excel

Date Time

  • NOW function: Description, Usage, Syntax, Examples and Explanation
  • TIMEVALUE function: Description, Usage, Syntax, Examples and Explanation
  • Display Date is same month in Excel
  • Next biweekly payday from date in Excel
  • Get last weekday in month in Excel

Grouping

  • Running count group by n size in Excel
  • Map text to numbers in Excel
  • If cell contains one of many things in Excel
  • Map inputs to arbitrary values in Excel
  • Group times into 3 hour buckets in Excel

General

  • Flash Fill in Excel
  • How to set or clear a print area in Excel Worksheet
  • How to calculate percent sold in Excel
  • Cell References: Relative, Absolute and Mixed Referencing Examples
  • How to generate random date between two dates in Excel
© 2025 xlsoffice . All Right Reserved. | Teal Smiles | Abbreviations And Their Meaning