EXACT vs SEARCH vs FIND Function in Excel (Video in Khmer)

Hello everyone! Today I show you how to use EXACT, SEARCH, and FIND function in Excel step by step with simple examples and video speak Khmer.

When working with text in Excel, sometimes you want to compare two text cells or find position (character number) of specific letter inside cell. Excel have 3 important functions for this: EXACT, SEARCH, and FIND.

📊 Quick Comparison: EXACT vs SEARCH vs FIND

1. How to Use EXACT Function in Excel

EXACT function compare two text strings and return TRUE if they are 100% same, or FALSE if they are different. It is Case-Sensitive (capital "A" and small "a" are NOT same!).

Syntax:

=EXACT(text1, text2)

Examples:

• =EXACT("Excel", "Excel") ➔ TRUE (Both text exact same)
• =EXACT("Excel", "excel") ➔ FALSE (First letter "E" capital, second letter "e" small)

2. How to Use SEARCH Function in Excel

SEARCH function return starting position number of substring within text string. SEARCH is Not Case-Sensitive (Capital "A" and small "a" treated exact same!) and support wildcard characters like * or ?.

Syntax:

=SEARCH(find_text, within_text, [start_num])

Examples:

If cell A2 contain "Excel Tutorial":

• =SEARCH("e", A2) ➔ 1 (Finds first "e" regardless capital or small letter!)
• =SEARCH(" ", A2) ➔ 6 (Finds position of space character)

3. How to Use FIND Function in Excel

FIND function also return position number of substring inside text. But FIND is Case-Sensitive (Capital letter different from small letter) and does NOT support wildcards.

Syntax:

=FIND(find_text, within_text, [start_num])

Examples:

If cell A2 contain "Excel Tutorial":

• =FIND("E", A2) ➔ 1 (Capital "E" is position 1)
• =FIND("e", A2) ➔ 4 (Small "e" in "Excel" is position 4)

📹 Video Tutorial in Khmer

Watch step by step video below to learn how to use EXACT, SEARCH, and FIND functions in Excel:

💡 Important Tips & Hints

💡 Tip 1: How to Fix #VALUE! Error
If SEARCH or FIND cannot find target text inside cell, Excel return #VALUE! error. You can wrap formula with ISNUMBER or IFERROR to check if text exist:
=ISNUMBER(SEARCH("cat", A2)) ➔ Returns TRUE if found, FALSE if not found.

💡 Tip 2: Hidden Spaces Cause False Results
If EXACT(A2, B2) return FALSE even when text looks same, one cell might have extra invisible space at start or end! Always clean text with TRIM:
=EXACT(TRIM(A2), TRIM(B2))

💡 Tip 3: When to Use SEARCH vs FIND

• Use SEARCH when searching space " " to split First Name and Last Name with LEFT or MID.
• Use FIND when needing strict case matching for product code, SKU, or serial number (e.g., "ABC-100" vs "abc-100").

💡 Tip 4: Wildcard Search
SEARCH supports * (matching any number of characters) and ? (matching single character). For example, =SEARCH("ex*t", "Excel Tutorial") will match pattern!

📚 Useful Resources

• Find vs Search Function in Excel (Video in Khmer)
• IF vs Equal (=) vs EXACT Function in Excel (Khmer)
• How to Use Text Cleaning Formulas in Excel (LEFT, RIGHT, MID, LEN, TRIM, CLEAN)
• Top 15 Basic Excel Formulas Every Beginner Should Know