🃏 Wildcard Search

Goal: Find text patterns using placeholders.
* (Asterisk): Matches any number of characters.
? (Question Mark): Matches exactly ONE character.

🔍
*
🍎Apple
📝Apply
🦍Ape
🍌Banana
🎸Band
🐻Bear
🍐Pear
🆘Help
Matches: All
Ready...

💻 Formula Structure

"Text" & "*"
  • * (Asterisk): Represents zero or more characters.
  • Ex: "A*" finds "Apple", "Ant", "A".
"T" & "?" & "st"
  • ? (Question): Represents exactly ONE character.
  • Ex: "T?st" finds "Test", "Tast", but NOT "Toast".
-- Count matching cells
=COUNTIF( A1:A8, "*" )
Count:
-

⚠️ Literal Search

🚫 Finding actual * or ?
If you need to search for a literal asterisk symbol (not a wildcard), put a tilde before it: ~*. Same for question mark: ~?.