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

Data Analysis

  • How to calculate average last N values in a table in Excel
  • Understanding Anova in Excel
  • How to create running total in an Excel Table
  • How to create Gauge Chart in Excel
  • How to create Checklist in Excel

References

  • Offset in Excel
  • Multi-criteria lookup and transpose in Excel
  • How to use Excel ROWS Function
  • How to get last row in text data in Excel
  • How to use Excel INDIRECT Function

Data Validations

  • Excel Data validation exists in list
  • Excel Data validation allow uppercase only
  • Excel Data validation unique values only
  • Excel Data validation with conditional list
  • Data validation must not exist in list

if cell contains this or that in Excel

by

This tutorial shows how to calculate if cell contains this or that in Excel using the example below;

Formula

=IF(SUM(COUNTIF(B5,{"*text1*","*text2*"})),"x","")

Explanation

To check to see if a cell contains more than one substring, you can use a formula based on the COUNTIF function.

In the example shown, the formula in C5 is:

=IF(SUM(COUNTIF(B5,{"*abc*","*aaa*"})),"x","")

How this formula works

The core of this formula is COUNTIF, which returns zero if none of the substrings is found, and a positive number if at least one substring is found. The twist in this case is that we are giving COUNTIF more than one substring to look for in the criteria, supplied as an “array constant”.  As a result, COUNTIF will return an array of results, with one result per item in the original criteria.

Note that we are also using the asterisk (*) as a wildcard for zero or more characters on either side of the substrings. This is what allows COUNTIF to count the substrings anywhere in the text (i.e. this provides the “contains” behavior).

Because we are getting back an array from COUNTIF, we use the SUM function to sum all items in the array. The result goes into the IF function as the “logical test”.  Any positive number will be evaluated as TRUE, so you can supply any values you like for value if true and value if false.

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Your email address will not be published.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

  • FALSE function: Description, Usage, Syntax, Examples and Explanation
  • XOR function: Description, Usage, Syntax, Examples and Explanation
  • Invoice status with nested if in Excel
  • SWITCH function example in Excel
  • How to use Excel OR Function

Date Time

  • Get work hours between dates and times in Excel
  • Get fiscal quarter from date in Excel
  • Add decimal minutes to time in Excel
  • How to calculate months between dates in Excel
  • Display the current date in Excel

Grouping

  • How to randomly assign people to groups in Excel
  • Categorize text with keywords in Excel
  • How to randomly assign data to groups in Excel
  • Group numbers with VLOOKUP in Excel
  • Running count group by n size in Excel

General

  • Convert column number to letter in Excel
  • Print Excel Sheet In Landscape Or Portrait
  • Find Most Frequently Occurring Word in Excel Worksheet
  • Mark Workbook as Final in Excel
  • Customize Ribbon In Excel
© 2025 xlsoffice . All Right Reserved. | Teal Smiles | Abbreviations And Their Meaning