Using wildcard characters in searches

Use wildcard characters as comparison criteria for text filters, and when you're searching and replacing content. These can also be used in Conditional Formatting rules that use the "Format cells that contain specific text" criteria.

For more about using wildcard characters with the Find and Replace features in Excel, see Find or replace text and numbers on a worksheet.

Use	To find
? (question mark)	Any single character For example, sm?th finds "smith" and "smyth"
* (asterisk)	Any number of characters For example, *east finds "Northeast" and "Southeast"
~ (tilde) followed by ?, *, or ~	A question mark, asterisk, or tilde For example, fy06~? finds "fy06?"