Calc FIND function

For a full list of available calculation functions, please read What calculation functions are supported.

This article describes the formula syntax and usage of the FIND function and is applicable to both the RPA and Cloud Automate's calculate functions.

Description

FIND locates one text string within a second text string, and return the number of the starting position of the first text string from the first character of the second text string.

Syntax

FIND(find_text, within_text, [start_num])

The FIND function syntax has the following arguments:

• find_text - Required. The text you want to find.
• within_text - Required. The text containing the text you want to find.
• start_num - Optional. Specifies the character at which to start the search. The first character in within_text is character number 1. If you omit start_num, it is assumed to be 1.

Remarks

• FIND is case sensitive and don't allow wildcard characters. If you don't want to do a case sensitive search or use wildcard characters, you can use SEARCH.
• If find_text is "" (empty text), FIND matches the first character in the search string (that is, the character numbered start_num or 1).
• Find_text cannot contain any wildcard characters.
• If find_text does not appear in within_text, FIND returns the #VALUE! error value.
• If start_num is not greater than zero, FIND returns the #VALUE! error value.
• If start_num is greater than the length of within_text, FIND returns the #VALUE! error value.
• Use start_num to skip a specified number of characters. Using FIND as an example, suppose you are working with the text string "AYF0093.YoungMensApparel". To find the number of the first "Y" in the descriptive part of the text string, set start_num equal to 8 so that the serial-number portion of the text is not searched. FIND begins with character 8, finds find_text at the next character, and returns the number 9. FIND always returns the number of characters from the start of within_text, counting the characters you skip if start_num is greater than 1.

Examples

Errors

For a full list of formula errors, please read Formula errors.

Related functions

• Calc CHAR function
• Calc CLEAN function
• Calc CODE function
• Calc CONCAT function
• Calc DETECTLANGUAGE function