How to filter data by containing asterisk or other special characters in Excel?

As we know, we use asterisk mask to stand any characters when you filter data, but how can you do if you want to filter data which contains asterisk mask? Now this article introduces the method about data filtering if containing asterisk or other special characters in Excel

Filter data by asterisk or other symbol with Filter

Filter data by special symbol with Super Filter

Filter data by asterisk or other symbol with Filter

Suppose you have a range of data as below screen shot shown, and you want to filter out the numbers which contain asterisk in the TelePhone column, please follow step by step:

1. Select the data range you want to filter, and click Data > Filter. See screenshot:

2. Then click the Filter arrow on the column which you want to filter by to show the context menu, and click Number Filters (Text Filters) > Custom Filter. See screenshot:

3. In the Custom AutoFilter dialog, select contains from the first drop down list, and type asterisk mask ~* into the next text box. See screenshot:

4. Click OK. Now you can see only the data contains * is filtered out. See screen shot:

If you want to filter data by containing other special characters, such as question mask ?, you just need to type ~? into the text box in Custom AutoFilter dialog and click OK. See screenshots:

Filter data by special symbol with Super Filter

Actually, if you have installed Kutools for Excel -- a handy Excel add-in tool, you also can use its Super Filter feature to filter data by asterisk symbol.

You can free install Kutools for Excel and try Super Filter out by following the below steps. 

After installing Kutools for Excel, please do as below:

1. Click Kutools Plus> Super Filter. See screenshot:

2. In the popping Super Filter pane, click  to select a data range, and check Specified checkbox to fix the range. See screenshot:

Tip: You can resize and move the pane by dragging the border of the pane.

3. Then move mouse right to the first AND to display a underline, click on the underline to show the criteria text boxes. See screenshot:

4. Select the column you want to filter by in the first drop down list, and in the second drop down list, select Text, and select Contains in the third drop down list, then type ~* (the asterisk symbol) into the last text box. See screenshot:

5. Then click Filter in the bottom of the pane, then the data with asterisk is filtered.

If you want to filter other special symbol, such as ?, you need to type ~? Into the last text box next to Contains. See screenshot:

The Super Filter is one of the powerful features in Kutools for Excel, with Kutools for Excel, you can merge multiple worksheet or workbooks, batch insert checkbox and optional button, split data by rows and so on. Free install Kutools for Excel to try it out which will easy your Excel working.

With Super Filter utility, you also can handle these:

Filter by multiple criteria or wildcard in Excel

Filter by substring in Excel