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How to filter cells with question mark in Excel?

Author Xiaoyang Last modified

Normally, the question mark “?” always be used as a wildcard for single character in Excel. And here, I have a list of text values which contain the question marks in cells, now I need to filter the cells which include the question marks as following screenshots shown.

the screenshot of the original data arrow the screenshot of filtered result

Unfortunately, if I apply the Filter feature in Excel directly, I will not get the correct result. Is there any good trick for us to deal with this problem?

Filter cells with question mark in Excel

Filter cells with question mark in Excel

Here is a little trick for you to filter the cells which contain the question marks, please do as follows:

1. Select your data column that you want to filter.

2. Then click Data > Filter, and a the screenshot of drop down arrow button will appear at the right bottom of the first cell, click it, and choose Text Filters > Contains, see screenshot:

the screenshot of specifying filter rule

3. Then, in the Custom AutoFilter dialog box, please enter ~? into the text box besides Contains box, see screenshot:

the screenshot of specifying filter rule 2

Note: the ~ symbol is above the Tab key on your keyboard.

4. And then click OK, only the cells which contain the question marks have been filtered out.

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