Documentation/How Tos/Calc: FIND function

CALC FUNCTIONS

Text Functions

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FUNCTIONS

• Base
• Char
• Clean
• Code
• Concatenate
• Dollar
• Exact
• Find
• Fixed
• Left
• Len
• Lower
• Mid
• Proper
• Replace
• Rept
• Right
• Search
• Substitute
• T
• Text
• Trim
• Upper
• Value

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FIND

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

Syntax:

FIND(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 case-sensitive.

A failed search gives the #VALUE! error.

Example:

FIND("yo"; "Yoyo")

returns 3.

FIND("cho"; "choochoo"; 2)

returns 5.

FIND("xyz","abcdef",1)

returns #VALUE!.

NOTE: This is an error condition, which must be 'handled' if used as the argument to another function.

IF( FIND("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( FIND("xyz","abcdef",1) ) , "ERR: Missing Substring", "Substring Present" ).

returns "ERR: Missing Substring" (... allowing the IF() to function, and not propagating the error from the FIND() function.

IF( ISNUMBER( FIND("xyz","abcdef",1) ) , "Substring Present", "ERR: Missing Substring" ).

returns "ERR: Missing Substring" (... allowing the IF() to function, and not propagating the error from the FIND() function.

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

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