Google Sheets is a very useful application that helps in organizing data and variables in a structured manner. In this article, I will be discussing how to search in google sheets and a few other lesser-known tricks that you can apply in Google Sheets.
Keep reading till the end to find out more information on the same!
About Google Sheets
Google Sheets is a popular spreadsheet application that is a part of the free web-based editors of Google Docs – and is offered up by Google. Google Sheets is also available as a web application as well. The application is also compatible with all of the Microsoft Excel formats of files. In the next section of the article, I will be discussing how to search in google sheets!
Ways To ‘Search’ In Google Sheets
Here are a few common ways of searching for something in Google Sheets:
Find And Replace Option
This is a built-in feature in Google Sheets and helps in looking through the entire spreadsheet for finding the entered keyword by the user. It has a lot of advantages over using formulas for searching for keywords. The most evident of which is case matching. It is also considered to be one of the most basic tools of Google Sheets.
Steps to accessing the find and replace feature in the Google Sheets:
- First and foremost, you have to go to the “edit” which is located at the top of the bar of your Google Sheets’ main screen.
- Then you need to select the “find and replace” option, which appears in the drop-down menu. This is going to open up a window smack in the middle of the screen.
- Enter the term that you want to search beside the “find” button. After being done with that, select the “this sheet” option located beside “search”.
- Next, put a tick on the check box beside the “match case” and click on the “find” button located down.
Search Option
Here is a list of steps for using the Search formula in the Google Sheets:
- First, you need to click on the cell where you intend to put the formula.
- Next, type in the formula “=SEARCH(“.
- After completing the prior steps, type in the cell address of the particular text which you intend to search.
- Then type in the cell address that contains the text that you want to search.
- After that write down the address containing the text that you want to search.
- Add on a closing bracket (after entering the term).
- Lastly, press “Enter” and the search results are going to show up.
Find Option
You can make use of this formula for locating the position where the string first detected a text. This formula is very case sensitive and hence, you need to make sure that the text you are entering is case-sensitive.
Steps to using the “find” formula:
- First, you would have to click on the cell where you wish to enter the formula.
- Next, you would need to type in the initials of the formula which is “=FIND(“.
- Then, type in the cell address of the text where you wish to search the text.
- After that, you need to add a closing bracket.
- Then press “enter”.
Match Option
The match function outputs a value’s position in a “user-defined” cell range. The syntax for the formula is: “=MATCH (key, range, type). The formula makes use of these three parameters – key, type, and range.
Here is a list of the following steps that you need to follow for using this Google Sheets function:
- First, you have to click on the cell where you wish to input the “match” formula.
- Next type in the initial part of the formula, which is “=MATCH(“.
- Then, you would need to type in the text which you originally intended to search for.
- After that add a comma.
- Then mention the cell range that might contain the text that you are searching for.
- After that add another comma for separating the parameters.
- The data does not have to be in a particular order. The third entered parameter has to be 0.
- Then add a closing bracket.
- Lastly, press the “enter” button for executing the formula.
Tip: There’s also another way of searching up keywords/terms on Google Sheets. You can do that by clicking the Ctrl and F buttons simultaneously, that would make a search box appear in the right-hand top corner. There you can enter the search term that you want to enter and that would highlight all of the places where that word has been entered.
Other Useful Google Sheet Tips And Tricks
Those were a few ways regarding “how to search in google sheets”. There are a lot of other things that you can do in Google Sheets as well. Here is a list of some of the useful Google Sheet tips and tricks that you should know about:
Quickly Change Up The Number Format
If you are typing a number that is supposed to be a percentage or a currency? Then you will be able to quickly change the number format of the cell by selecting and heading over to the main toolbar. There you are going to see a display of a few symbols. Click on the dollar sign and change the format of the number to currency. This is automatically going to insert a symbol of currency and add up the decimal digits up to two digits.
Use The Themes Of Google Sheets
The Google Sheets also has a pre-set of themes that you can apply for making the spreadsheet look more appealing. To get access to the themes, first head over to the “format” option on the main menu. There you are going to see a themes option which will be listed right at the top of the drop-down menu list. The sidebar which is located on the right-hand side of the spreadsheet will show up a list of themes that are already available, and you can select from one of them for applying to your spreadsheet.
Wrap The Text In Specific Cells
If the cell has a fixed string which does not fit its size, then you have the option of making the text gets wrapped inside of the column. You can do this by clicking on the “format” option from the main menu and then clicking on the “text wrapping” option from the drop-down menu. Here you are going to get the option labeled as “wrap”.
To Wrap It Up!
That was all for information regarding ways of searching in Google Sheets. Thank you for reading up till here. I hope you found the information regarding “how to search in google sheets” useful.
Read Also:
About the Author
