Conditional format with wildcard in formula

[immyjimmy]

I am trying to write a conditional formating IF statement that requires the use of a wildcard (?)

If the value of C1 is "abs 2" then true.
If the value of C1 is "als 2" then true.
If the value of C1 is "aby 2" then false.

=IF(C1="a"&?&"s 2",1,0) #returns error upon hitting Enter#
=IF(C1="a"&"?"&"s 2",1,0) #condition met if value is "a?s 2"
=IF(C1="a"&'?'&"s 2",1,0) #returns error upon hitting Enter#
=IF(C1="a"&\?&"s 2",1,0) #Excel allows formula, but does not change cell#

Any further ideas?

Thanks in advance,
Jim

I love cats. They taste like chicken.

 

[milesUK]

Jim, How about a different slant on the problem:

=IF(Left(C1) & Right(c1,3)="as 2",1,0)

 

[immyjimmy]

That's the route I've been using. I was looking for something a bit more elegant and simple. It also doesn't limit the filtering to a single character. ie.

abs 2
acs 2
achs 2

With this method, that last line would still show true even though there were extra characters. Fortunately in my situation, the data is imported from a limited field in a database and therefore unlikely to have typos. If this data were hand-entered, I'd have to spend some time on error checking. So I guess there is no sort of "wildcard" usage in a formula then.

Thanks,
Jim

I used to eat a lot of natural foods until I learned that most people die of natural causes.