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REFERENCE

U.FIND

Summary

Returns the location of substrings within text. A more functional version of Excel's native FIND / SEARCH functions

Syntax

=U.FIND(substrings, text, [start_num], [case_sensitive], [look_left], [all_occurrences])

Parameters

Parameter Required Description
substrings Yes One or more substrings to be sought within the text. The index of the leftmost substring found will be returned (or the index of the rightmost if searching right-to-left)
text Yes The text that will be searched for the specified substrings
[start_num] No The location in the text at which to begin searching for specified substrings. If negative, it indicates an offset from the end of the text. Default is 1 for left-to-right searches and the end of the text for right-to-left searches
[case_sensitive] No If set to TRUE then the search is case-sensitive. Searches ignore case by default
[look_left] No If set to TRUE then the search is performed from right-to-left and the index of the right-most match is returned. By default searches are from left-to-right and the index of the leftmost match is returned
[all_occurrences] No If set to TRUE then the index of every found substring is returned as comma-delimited values

Behavior

The documented public interface is supported by the current U Add-in source signature and the maintained Usage Examples workbook. Optional parameters are shown in square brackets in the syntax above; omit the brackets when entering a formula.

Return Value

Returns the function result or action status described by the formula and parameters above. The maintained sources do not define a narrower, stable return contract for this function.

Examples

=U.FIND(D6,B6)

=U.FIND(D11:D12,B6)

=U.FIND(D11:D12,B6,7)

Notes

  • Formula examples are preserved from maintained workbook usage and normalized to the current U. prefix.
  • Complete formulas demonstrate working patterns; they do not imply that undocumented option values are supported.
  • Where maintained sources do not specify every accepted value, default, or error message, this page does not infer one.
  • For functions that perform actions, use a visible trigger or supported block/throttle parameter to avoid unintended repetition during recalculation.