Function to find a portion of text in a cell

Nathan Asius

New Member
Joined
Jan 15, 2024
Messages
41
Office Version
  1. 365
Platform
  1. Windows
I'm looking to build a formula with a series of nested IF(AND statements where one of the two conditions in each IF statement looks for a certain portion of a text in a cell.
For example if A1 contains "44 White Birds", and A2 contains "Willow Tree" I need cell A10 to look for "44W" in A1, and "Willow" in A2 and return a range named 'BirdWillow'. So the formula is only looking for a portion of a text string (that may contain letters and numbers), in each cell.
I've tried the following formula and in testing it I receive the error of too many arguments.

=IF(AND(ISNUMBER(SEARCH("44W",A1))),ISNUMBER(SEARCH("Willow",A2)),WillowSpecies, IF(AND(ISNUMBER(SEARCH("22F",A3))),ISNUMBER(SEARCH("Maple",A4)),MapleSpecies, IF(AND(ISNUMBER(SEARCH("6 Bark",A5))),ISNUMBER(SEARCH("Elm",A6)),ElmSpecies, IF(A7="Books","Bookcase",""))

I've played around with the syntax trying to re-arrange the parenthesis but I am not successful. I don't know if it's the syntax or if the Functions are entirely wrong. On my worksheet I don't have the spacing between the IF. I only did that to display the two conditions of each IF(AND.
 

Excel Facts

Convert text numbers to real numbers
Select a column containing text numbers. Press Alt+D E F to quickly convert text to numbers. Faster than "Convert to Number"
You are closing the ANDs to early, try
Excel Formula:
=IF(AND(ISNUMBER(SEARCH("44W",A1)),ISNUMBER(SEARCH("Willow",A2))),WillowSpecies, IF(AND(ISNUMBER(SEARCH("22F",A3)),ISNUMBER(SEARCH("Maple",A4))),MapleSpecies, IF(AND(ISNUMBER(SEARCH("6 Bark",A5)),ISNUMBER(SEARCH("Elm",A6))),ElmSpecies, IF(A7="Books","Bookcase",""))))
 
Upvote 0
Solution
That doesn't seem to work. I've painstakingly looked over every character of the formula and I have it exactly as you wrote it. I get this standard error.
 

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Upvote 0
Did you retype the formula or copy it using the copy icon top right hand side of the code tags?
 
Upvote 0
I had copied it as well as re-typed it. At first neither was working. But then something I did changed the syntax in the formula and it works. I must have inadvertently put a typo in.

The formula does what I need. Thanks Fluff.
 
Upvote 0
You're welcome & thanks for the feedback.
 
Upvote 0

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