Can I Spreadsheet?
← All functions

SEARCH

Supported, behaves as documented

Category: Text · Last tested 2026-07-04

Support matrix

EngineDocumentedLive-testedVerdict
Excel Yes Not yet n/a
Google Sheets Yes Not yet n/a
LibreOffice Calc Yes Yes (24.2.7.2, 2026-07-04) Supported, behaves as documented

Executed test cases

LibreOffice Calc 24.2.7.2 (tested 2026-07-04)

FormulaDescriptionResultExpectedVerdict
=SEARCH("a","Apple") SEARCH is case-insensitive: lowercase 'a' matches the leading uppercase 'A' -> position 1 (contrast with FIND on this exact same input, which is case-sensitive and returns #VALUE!) 1 1
Source: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/search-function-9ab04538-0e55-4719-a72e-b6f54513b495 - SEARCH is not case-sensitive		 Matched
=SEARCH("p*e","Apple") SEARCH supports wildcards unlike FIND: '*' matches any sequence of characters, so "p*e" matches the substring "pple" starting at position 2 2 2
Source: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/search-function-9ab04538-0e55-4719-a72e-b6f54513b495 - SEARCH allows the wildcard characters '?' and '*' in find_text; FIND does not support wildcards at all		 Matched
=SEARCH("?pple","Apple") '?' wildcard matches exactly one character, so "?pple" matches "Apple" starting at position 1 1 1 Matched
=SEARCH("z","Apple") find_text not present anywhere in within_text -> #VALUE! #VALUE! #VALUE! Matched

Docs & syntax