FIND and SEARCH text functions in Excel 2013

FIND

FIND(find_text,within_text,start_num)

FIND checks for a substring within another text string and tells us how many characters along it appears from left (for the instance that it finds first).

The substring you want to find is entered into "find_text", while the text string from which it needs to find is entered into "within_text"

The input text strings can be a direct input inside "" or by giving a cell reference.

The third input "start_num" is optional. It gives flexibility to tell it how many characters in to start.

FIND function is case-sensitive.

SEARCH

SEARCH(find_text,within_text,start_num)

The syntax and working of SEARCH function is exactly same as FIND function. The advantage with SEARCH function is that it is case-insensitive.

We can use wildcard characters inside SEARCH function and hence it is more versatile than FIND function.

E.g. Wildcard characters like question mark (?) matches exactly one character, while an asterisk (*) matches a series of zero or more characters.

The below example shows the use of "?" wildcard character. It tells the SEARCH function to find the first string that starts with a D and ends with a R with any five letters in between denoted by "?????". Thus, it will return the number of character from where the first string meeting with above criteria starts i.e. 24.