Find and Replace in Excel is an invaluable tool for anyone looking to streamline their data management processes. Whether it’s updating information, correcting errors, standardizing data, or ensuring confidentiality, this feature simplifies and accelerates the task of modifying large datasets. By mastering Find and Replace, you can enhance productivity, maintain data integrity, and ensure consistency across your Excel projects. Incorporate this powerful function into your workflow to transform the way you handle and analyze data, making your Excel experience more efficient and error-free.
This Content Covers:
- How to use Find in Excel?
- Find a Value in a Range, Spreadsheet, or Workbook
- In Excel, Look for Cells with a Particular Format
- How to Select and Highlight all Found Entries on a Sheet
- Find Cells with Formulas in Excel
- Additional options for Excel Find
- How to use Replace in Excel?
- Replace One Value with Another
- Method for Finding or Replacing Line Breaks
- How to Change Cell Formatting on the Sheet
- How to Replace Wildcard Characters in Excel Using the Find and Replace Function
- Shortcuts for Find and Replace in Excel
1. How to use Find in Excel?
1.1 Find a Value in a Range, Spreadsheet, or Workbook
You can use the following instructions to locate particular characters, text, numbers, or dates in a group of cells, a worksheet, or the whole workbook.
Step 1: Select the range of cells from which you want to look for the value and go to Home>>Find & Select>>Find. Or you can select the range and press CTRL+F keys to open Find and Replace dialogue box.
Step 2: Go to Find tab and input the name or value or text you are looking for inside Find What box. If you want to look only withing your current worksheet then select Sheet from Within box. Choose Workbook if you want to search the entire workbook.
Step 3: If you click on Find Next, it will show the value’s first occurrence. The second click selects the second occurrence, and so on.
Step 4: Excel displays a list of all occurrences when you click Find All. Any item in the list can be clicked to get to the relevant cell.
Also Read: How to Wrap Text in Excel (including shortcuts)
1.2 In Excel, Look for Cells with a Particular Format
Step 1: Press CTRL+F key to open Find and Replace dialogue box. Click on the drop-down button of Format box and select Choose Format From Cell. You can also choose from Find Format dialogue box by clicking Format.
Step 2: When you select Choose Format From Cell, a plus icon with a dropper icon will appear. Select the cell from which you want to choose the format from.
Step 3: Press Find Next or Find All.
1.3 How to Select and Highlight all Found Entries on a Sheet
Step 1: To select the list of entries inside Find and Replace dialogue box, click on any of the entries and then press CTRL+A to select all of them at once.
Step 2: The cells in your selected range are also selected now, simply change the cell color from ribbon to highlight them.
1.4 Find Cells with Formulas in Excel
Step 1: Select the range of cells then go to Home>>Find & Select>>Go to Special.
Step 2: From Go to Special dialogue box and select Formulas. Make sure all the boxes from Formulas option are checked and click OK.
Step 3: All the cells that contain formulas will be highlighted in your selected range.
1.5 Additional options for Excel Find
The find and Replace dialogue box provides us with some additional options for a better and more accurate search result. To view the additional options, click on the Options button in the dialogue box.
- The Within box has two options, Sheet and Workbook. So, we can search for a value from only the worksheet or the entire workbook according to our preferences.
- Select By Rows in the Search box to search the current cell from left to right, row by row. Select By Columns to do a column-by-column search from top-to-bottom.
- Select Formulas, Values, or Comments in the Look-in box to search among a certain data type.
- Check the Match case check box for a case-sensitive search.
Select the Match complete cell contents option to look for cells that only contain the characters you specified in the Find what box.
2. How to use Replace in Excel?
2.1 Replace One Value with Another
Step 1: Select the range and go to Home>>Find & Select>>Replace. Or press CTRL+H keys to open Replace tab in Find and Replace dialogue box.
Step 2: Input the value to search for in the Find what box, and then type the value to replace it with in the Replace with box. Select Replace to swap out each of the detected entries individually or Replace All to switch out every entry at once.
2.2 Method for Finding or Replacing Line Breaks
You can replace a line break with a space or any other separator by following the steps below.
Step 1: To find and replace line breaks in a range, select the range and press CTRL+H to open Replace tab in Find and Replace dialogue box.
Step 2: Select the Find What box and press CTRL+J. This shortcut is a controlled code for line breaks. The Find What box may first appear empty, but upon looking closer, you’ll see a little flickering dot, as shown in the picture below. Enter a space as a replacing character inside Replace with box and click Replace All.
Also Read: How to Capitalize First Letter in Excel?
2.3 How to Change Cell Formatting on the Sheet
Step 1: Press CTRL+H keys to open Find and Replace dialogue box. Click the Format button’s arrow next to the Find what box, select Choose Format From Cell and then click any cell that has the format you want to change.
Step 2: Click the Format button next to Replace With box and select Choose Format From Cell. Then click on any cell from column A or column C which are formatted as General.
Step 3: Click Replace All and all the cells from column B which were formatted as Date will be formatted as General now and instead of the dates, those cells will show only the serial numbers for those dates.
2.4 How to Replace Wildcard Characters in Excel Using the Find and Replace Function
Step 1: Here we have a wildcard character (?) in cell C1. To replace it, first press CTRL+H to open Find and Replace dialogue box.
Step 2: Type the tilde character (~) before the question (?) mark in Find What box and type the value u want it to replace with inside Replace With box.
Step 3: Press Replace All and the wildcard character will be replaced.
3. Shortcuts for Find and Replace in Excel
There are few useful shortcuts you can use while operating with Find and Replace in Excel.
- CTRL+F– To open the Find tab in Find and Replace dialogue box.
- CTRL+H– To open the Replace tab in Find and Replace dialogue box.
- CTRL+J– To Find or Replace a line break.
- CTRL+SHIFT+F4– To locate an earlier occurrence of the search value.
SHIFT+F4 – To find the next occurrence of the search value.
Application of Find and Replace in Excel
- Updating Information: Use Find and Replace to quickly update specific information, such as changing a company name or address across multiple cells or sheets.
- Correcting Spelling Errors: Correct common spelling mistakes throughout a spreadsheet by finding the incorrect spelling and replacing it with the correct one.
- Standardizing Data Formats: Standardize formats for data entries, like dates or phone numbers, by replacing various formats with a uniform one across the dataset.
- Removing Unwanted Characters: Find and eliminate unwanted or non-printable characters that may have been introduced during data import or copying from other sources.
- Batch Updating Formulas: Update parts of formulas, such as cell references or function names, across multiple cells at once, ensuring consistency and saving time.
- Data Anonymization: Replace personal or sensitive information with anonymous identifiers to protect privacy or for publishing data while maintaining confidentiality.
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