Skip to main content

How to vlookup wildcard (~, *, ?) literally in Excel?

For example, you want to vlookup a value with wildcard, says Apple* in Excel. The formula =VLOOKUP("Apple*",A1:D24,4,FALSE) won’t return the correct result because the asterisk * represents any series of characters, such as Appleavcs. But, you may just want to vlookup Apple* literally. How to solve it? Below methods will help you get it done:


Vlookup value containing wildcard (~, *, ?) literally with formula

We can combine the VLOOKUP function and SUBSTITUTE function to vlookup value containing wildcards literally easily. Please do as follows:

Enter below formula into a blank cell, and press the Enter key.

=VLOOKUP(SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(F2,"~","~~"),"?","~?"),"*","~*"),A1:D24,4,FALSE)

In above formula:

  • F2 is the lookup value
  • A1:D24 is the array table you will search for the lookup value from
  • 4 means it will look for the target value from the fourth column in the array table
note ribbon Formula is too complicated to remember? Save the formula as an Auto Text entry for reusing with only one click in future!
Read more…     Free trial

And then the value matched the lookup value has been found out from the array table. See screenshot:

Quickly apply the VLOOKUP function and ignore errors in Excel

The VLOOKUP function will return 0 if the matched value does not exist, or return #N/A error occurring by various reasons in Excel. To ignoring the VLOOKUP errors, you may need to modify the VLOOKUP formulas one by one manually. Here, with the Replace 0 or #N/A with Blank or a Specified Value feature of Kutools for Excel, you can easily avoid returning errors values.


Kutools for Excel - Supercharge Excel with over 300 essential tools. Enjoy a full-featured 30-day FREE trial with no credit card required! Get It Now

Vlookup value containing wildcard (~, *, ?) literally with Kutools for Excel

The combined formula is too complex to remember? Don’t worry! This method recommend Kutools for Excel’s Select Specific Cells utility to easily vlookup value containing wildcards literally from the selected range easily.

Kutools for Excel - Packed with over 300 essential tools for Excel. Enjoy a full-featured 30-day FREE trial with no credit card required! Download now!

1. Select the range you will vlookup value containing wildcards, and click Kutools > Select > Select Specific Cells. See screenshot:

2. In the opening Select Specific Cells dialog box, (1) please check the Entire row option in the Selection type section; (2) select the Equals from the first drop down list in the Specific type section, (3) type the value with wildcard into following box, (4) and click the Ok button. See screenshot above:

3. A dialog box comes out and shows how many cells (rows) have been found out and selected. Please click the OK button to close it. See screenshot:

And now the row containing the specified value with wildcard has been selected. And you can easily get the target value from the certain column. See screenshot:


Vlookup multiple values containing wildcard (~, *, ?) literally with Kutools for EXCEL

Sometimes, you may need to vlookup many values containing wildcard literally from selected range in Excel at the same time. In this case, you can try Kutools for Excel’s Select Same & Different Cells utility to archive it easily!

Kutools for Excel - Packed with over 300 essential tools for Excel. Enjoy a full-featured 30-day FREE trial with no credit card required! Download now!

1. Type the values with wildcards you will vlookup in a column, and click Kutools > Select > Select Same & Different Cells to open the Compare Ranges dialog box.
Note: In our case we type three values with wildcards in the Range F2:F4.
doc select same different cells

doc select same different cells 3464

2. In the Compare Ranges dialog box, please do as left screenshot shown::

(1) Specify the column you will search for values with wildcard into the Find values in box;
(2) Specify the column you just entered the values with wildcards into the According to box;
(3) Check the Each row option in the Based on section;
(4) Check the Same Values option;
(5) Check the Fill backcolor option, and specify a fill color from below drop down list;
(6) Check the Select entire rows option.
(7) Click the Ok button.

3. Another Compare Ranges dialog box pops out and shows how many rows have been selected. Just click the OK button to close it.

And now entire rows containing the specified values with wildcards have been highlighted. And you can easily get the matched values from the certain column (the Amount column in our case). See screenshot:


Demo: vlookup wildcard (~, *, ?) literally in Excel


Kutools for Excel: Over 300 handy tools at your fingertips! Start your 30-day free trial with no feature limitations today. Download Now!

Related articles:

Best Office Productivity Tools

🤖 Kutools AI Aide: Revolutionize data analysis based on: Intelligent Execution   |  Generate Code  |  Create Custom Formulas  |  Analyze Data and Generate Charts  |  Invoke Kutools Functions
Popular Features: Find, Highlight or Identify Duplicates   |  Delete Blank Rows   |  Combine Columns or Cells without Losing Data   |   Round without Formula ...
Super Lookup: Multiple Criteria VLookup    Multiple Value VLookup  |   VLookup Across Multiple Sheets   |   Fuzzy Lookup ....
Advanced Drop-down List: Quickly Create Drop Down List   |  Dependent Drop Down List   |  Multi-select Drop Down List ....
Column Manager: Add a Specific Number of Columns  |  Move Columns  |  Toggle Visibility Status of Hidden Columns  |  Compare Ranges & Columns ...
Featured Features: Grid Focus   |  Design View   |   Big Formula Bar    Workbook & Sheet Manager   |  Resource Library (Auto Text)   |  Date Picker   |  Combine Worksheets   |  Encrypt/Decrypt Cells    Send Emails by List   |  Super Filter   |   Special Filter (filter bold/italic/strikethrough...) ...
Top 15 Toolsets12 Text Tools (Add Text, Remove Characters, ...)   |   50+ Chart Types (Gantt Chart, ...)   |   40+ Practical Formulas (Calculate age based on birthday, ...)   |   19 Insertion Tools (Insert QR Code, Insert Picture from Path, ...)   |   12 Conversion Tools (Numbers to Words, Currency Conversion, ...)   |   7 Merge & Split Tools (Advanced Combine Rows, Split Cells, ...)   |   ... and more

Supercharge Your Excel Skills with Kutools for Excel, and Experience Efficiency Like Never Before. Kutools for Excel Offers Over 300 Advanced Features to Boost Productivity and Save Time.  Click Here to Get The Feature You Need The Most...

Description


Office Tab Brings Tabbed interface to Office, and Make Your Work Much Easier

  • Enable tabbed editing and reading in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Publisher, Access, Visio and Project.
  • Open and create multiple documents in new tabs of the same window, rather than in new windows.
  • Increases your productivity by 50%, and reduces hundreds of mouse clicks for you every day!
Comments (1)
No ratings yet. Be the first to rate!
This comment was minimized by the moderator on the site
Why can't you just cover the topic instead of trying to push a package I have not interest in?
There are no comments posted here yet
Please leave your comments in English
Posting as Guest
×
Rate this post:
0   Characters
Suggested Locations