searching text

Posted by Roger on January 29, 2002 11:55 AM

can anyone tell me how to test the text value of a cell? In each cell there is a string that will consist of something along the lines of sst-blah blah blah. What I need to do is delete every row that does not contain sst. So basically I need to test the first three characters of each cell to see if it contains the letters sst if it does I keep the row if not I delete it. How do I test only a section of a string?
thanks,
roger

Posted by Mark W. on January 29, 2002 12:03 PM

=LEFT(A1,3)="SST" where cell A1 contains your text
value. Delete all rows that return FALSE.

Posted by Chris D on January 29, 2002 2:56 PM

or use auto filter.... filter on "does not begin with" and then enter "sst"

then delete the resulting block of filtered rows

(this is manual though, whereas Mark's option retains the formula indefinitely and does actually "test" the cell in question, which is what you asked)

Hope this also helps though
Chris
Chris