Searching for part of a string in a cell

[ayounis1]

Hey,

I have a simple question which is annoying me for a while

IF(A1="*BSC*",8000,0) always returns the not true value knowing that cell A1 contains the value "BSC H8" without the double quotes

The question is: Why isn't the "*" working as a meta character?

Regards,
Ayman

 

[ukmikeb]

hi

I don't think you can use meta-characters with the IF.

Try this :-

=IF(ISERROR(SEARCH("BSC",A1)),0,8000)

or

=IF(ISERROR(FIND("BSC",A1)),0,8000)

hth

Mike

 

[mikerickson]

IF can handle pattern matching; = does not.

=IF(ISNUMBER(MATCH("*BSC*",A1,0),8000,0)

 

[ayounis1]

Thanks guys for your help.

It finally worked