The SEARCHB function returns the position of the searched text within the viewed text.
Counts double-byte characters, such as hieroglyphs, as 2 characters.
The function is case insensitive, supports wildcards “?” and “*”.
This feature can be useful for working with texts containing characters from different languages and character sets, including double-byte characters such as Chinese, Japanese, and Korean.
Syntax
SEARCHB(find_text, within_text, [start_num])
Argument |
Description |
Permitted values |
|---|---|---|
find_text |
String to be found in the “within_text” argument |
Text string or reference to a cell containing text |
within_text |
Text in which you need to find the first occurrence of the value specified by the “find_text” argument |
Text string or reference to a cell containing text |
[start_num] |
(optional) Character in the “within_text” argument from which the search should start |
Integer ≥1 or a reference to a cell containing a number |
Examples of use
Search for a two-byte character
If cell A1 contains the text “こんにちは” (hello in Japanese) and you want to find the position of the character “に”:
=SEARCHB("に", A1)
The function will return 3, since “に” is in the third position.
Search with initial position specified
If you want to start searching from the third character:
=SEARCHB("に", A1, 3)
The function will also return 3, since the character “に” is in the same position.
"find_text" argument is not found in the "within_text" argument
If you are searching for text that is not contained in the string, for example:
=SEARCHB("猫", A1)
The function will return the #VALUE! error, since "猫" symbol is not found in the string.
Notes
–The SEARCHB function takes into account the byte length of characters, which makes it useful for working with texts in languages that use double-byte characters.
–If the value of the start_num argument exceeds the length of the within_text argument, the function will return the #VALUE! error.