There are two very similar functions in Excel to look for data inside of cells matching parameters that you dictate: crusade and Find. There are so similar, in fact, that one wonders why have two separate functions that accomplish virtually the identical results and are identical in the form of the formula. This article will discuss he one, basic difference.
Search Introduction
The crusade function is a way to find a character or string within other cell, and it will return the value linked with the beginning place. In other words, if you are trying to figure out where a character is within the cell that contains a word, sentence or other type of information, you could use the crusade function. The format for this function is:
=Search("find_text","within_text",start_num).
If, for example, the word "alphabet" was in cell C2, and your model needed the location of the letter "a" in that cell, you would use the recipe =Search("a",C2,1), and the effect would be 1. To continue this simplistic example, if you were seeking the location of "b" in the word, the recipe would be =Search("b",C2,1), and the effect would be 6. You can also use crusade on strings of characters. If, for example, cell F2 contains 1023-#555-A123, the recipe =Search("A12",F2,1) would yield the 11 as an answer.
Find Introduction
The Find function is other way to find a character or string within other cell, and it will return the value linked with the beginning place, just like the crusade function. The format for this function is:
=Find("find_text","within_text",start_num).
Using the same example as before, the location of the letter "a" in cell C2 would be discovered using =Find("a",C2,1), and the effect would be 1. Looking for "b" in cell C2 would be finished be =Find("b",C2,1), resulting in the whole 6. Finally, lasting on the similarity path, if cell F2 contains 1023-#555-A123 (as before), the recipe =Find("A12",F2,1) would yield the 11 as an answer. As you can see, up to this point, both methods would give you the same results.
Note: You probably fast recognized that there are two a's in the word settled in cell C2. By stating the beginning point in each of the formulas as 1, we will pick up the first instance of the letter "a". If we needed to select the next instance, we could merely have the "start_num" part of the recipe to be 2, thus skipping the first instance of the letter and resulting in an write back of 5.
Main Differences
The main inequity between the crusade function and the Find function is that Find is case sensitive and crusade is not. Thus, if you used the recipe =Search("A",C2,1) (note the capital "A"), the effect would still be 1, as in the case before. If you were to use the recipe =Find("A",C2,1), you would get #Value!. Find is case sensitive and there is no "A" in the word "alphabet".
Another inequity is that crusade allows for the use of wildcards whereas Find does not. In this context, a demand mark will look for an exact phrase or series of characters in a cell, and an asterisk will look for the beginning of the series of characters right before the asterisk. For example, the recipe =Search("a?p",C2,1) in our alphabet example would yield an write back of 1, as it is Looking for an exact grouping of the letter "a" with anything next to it with a "p" immediately after. As this is in the beginning of the word, the value returned is 1. lasting with the alphabet example, the recipe =Search("h*t",C2,1) would yield a value of 4. In this instance, the wildcard "*" can characterize any whole of characters in between the "h" and the "t" as long as there is a string beginning and ending with the two letters you use in the formula. If the recipe was =Search("h*q",C2,1), you would get #Value!.
In short, these two formulas are very similar, and unless you need confirmation of an exact character or string of characters, you would likely err on the side of using Search. Instances where this may not be the case might involve searches sharp exact Skus or names of employees. In my experience, crusade has been more helpful in exact financial modeling exercises, but it is helpful to understand the differences in usage and results as you work straight through your own modeling projects.
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