📌 More functions: see the Formula function reference.

1 Basics

FIND searches for a value starting at a given position and returns the position of its first occurrence. Returns -1 if not found.

Syntax

FIND(search_value, search_range, [start_position])

search_value: the value to find — case-sensitive.
search_range: a value, an array, or a field — where to search.
start_position: starting position. Defaults to 1.

Examples

[Field 1] in the first record is “Hello World”.

Example 1: position of “World”

FIND("World", [Field 1])

Result: 7 (“World” starts at position 7).

Example 2: search for “o” starting at position 8

FIND("o", [Field 1], 8)

Result: 9 (first “o” from position 8 is at position 9). Use FIND to locate substrings — handy for text processing and analysis. Note: FIND is case-sensitive. For case-insensitive search use SEARCH.

2 Scenario examples

2.1 Split by character

Field has three parts: date-location-store. Split off the date with FIND on ”-“:

MID([Record name],FIND(%22-%22,[Record name],1)+1,len([Record name])

MID([Record name],FIND("-",[Record name],1)+1,8)

2.2 Check by character

Per requirement, product descriptions must call out allergens — use FIND to check:

IFERROR(FIND("Allergen",[Product description],1),"Missing allergen note ❌")

2.3 Replace a substring

Replace all “taste” with “flavor” in product descriptions:

REPLACE([Product description], FIND("taste", [Product description]), LEN("taste"), "flavor")

Using DATEDIF Using IF and IFS

​1 Basics

​Syntax

​Examples

​Example 1: position of “World”

​Example 2: search for “o” starting at position 8

​2 Scenario examples

​2.1 Split by character

​2.2 Check by character

​2.3 Replace a substring