There are two big differences between FIND and SEARCH functions in excel.

• The FIND function is case-sensitive. And the SEARCH function is case-insensitive.
• The FIND function is not allow to use wildcard. But the SEARCH function is allow to use wildcard characters.

 The FIND function is case-sensitive

If you want to locate the position of a sub string within another text string, you can use the FIND function in excel.

=FIND("excel",B1)

The SEARCH function is case-insensitive

If you want to get the position of a sub string within a text string in cell B1, using the SEARCH function in excel.

=SEARCH(“excel”,B1)

Using wildcard characters in SEARCH function

There are two wildcard characters can be used by the SEARCH function in excel.

qustion mark (?)-matches one character

asterisk (*) – matches one or more other characters.

=SEARCH(“*cel”,B1)

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Related Functions

• Excel Find function
  The Excel FIND function returns the position of the first text string (substring) from the first character of the second text string.The FIND function is a build-in function in Microsoft Excel and it is categorized as a Text Function.The syntax of the FIND function is as below:= FIND  (find_text, within_text,[start_num])…
• Excel SEARCH function
  The Excel SEARCH function returns the number of the starting location of a substring in a text string.The syntax of the SEARCH function is as below:= SEARCH  (find_text, within_text,[start_num])…