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How to find value in a cell with comma separated list in Excel?

Supposing you have a column contains comma separated values such as Sales,123,AAA, and now you want to find if value 123 in the comma separated cell, how can you do? This article will introduce method to solve the problem.

Find value in a cell with comma separated list with formula

Find value in a cell with comma separated list with formula

The following formula can help you finding value in a cell with comma-separated list in Excel. Please do as follows.

1. Select a blank cell, enter formula =IF(ISNUMBER(SEARCH(123,A2)),"yes","no") into the Formula Bar and then press the Enter key. See screenshot:

Note: in the formula, A2 is the cell contains the comma-separated values you will find.

2. Keep selecting the result cell and drag the Fill Handle down to get all results. If value “123” is in the comma-separated cells, you will get the result as “Yes”; otherwise, you will get the result as “No”. See screenshot:

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Comments (16)
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Hassam
Hassam
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Hey, I still cant figure this out. I am still having the same problem. instead of using number in the formula I am using a cell reference. for example if i am searching for "1"(Q$1) in (123, 25,29,200)($J2) it is still giving me YES. The formula is =IF(ISNUMBER(SEARCH(Q$1,$J2)),"yes","no")

PS: I have a big data set I cannot put commas before and after in every cell. Will appreciate a solution
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crystal
crystal     Hassam
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Hi Hassam

Just use the following formula without the IF function. If the number matches exactly, you will get the result "TRUE", otherwise you will get the result "FALSE".
=ISNUMBER(FIND(",1,",","&$J2&","))
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Mohini Verma
Mohini Verma
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Hi All, I have a cell that has multiple countries separated by commas
Example : A2 cell value is (India, Japan, Malaysia, Greater China)
Column G has the country names
Now , I need to find look for a formula that compares value from column G to value in A2 cell .
If the value matches, then return true otherwise return False
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crystal
crystal     Mohini Verma
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Hi Mohini Verma,
The formula can be modified as follows:
=IF(ISNUMBER(SEARCH(G2,A2)),"TRUE","FALSE")
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duncan
duncan
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How about this please, I need to get the values in A and equate them with the figures in C and return the values in B separated as in commas respectively to C.

Thanks
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crystal
crystal     duncan
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Hi duncan,
If you are using Excel for 365, the following formula can help solving the problem.
=TEXTJOIN(",",TRUE,XLOOKUP(TRANSPOSE(VALUE(TEXTSPLIT(D1,","))),A1:A3,B1:B3,"",0,1))
This formula only works in Excel for 365. For other Excel versions other than Excel for 365, I have not found a formula that handles it..
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Aahad Memon
Aahad Memon
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Hi Please help

I have table in Excel with two columns A & B, under A there are value Eg A2 Cell has 1,2,2,1,2,1,2 etc ( only has two numbers 1 and 2 but needs to recognise it has only 1 & 2 in the whole cell and no other number) and A3 has 1,1,1 and A4 has 0, A5 has 2,2,2,2 and A6 has 20. i want B2 should return the value for A2 as Asia, B3 Africa, B4 as None, B5 as America and B6 as Europe. I thought i could use the if formula but it is not able to recognise comma separated numbers and return value). Please Help
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Scott S.
Scott S.
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Hello!
This is a really cool formula, but it has ... flaw? ... that I cannot figure out how to work around it. "Flaw" is not the correct word, but I cannot think (it's 8:30 am on Monday) of the right word.
When you are looking for any part of a number, you get "yes". So, the following all return "yes":
=IF(ISNUMBER(SEARCH(12,A2)),"yes","no")
=IF(ISNUMBER(SEARCH(23,A2)),"yes","no")
=IF(ISNUMBER(SEARCH(3,A2)),"yes","no")

I tried wrapping the numbers in quotes to no avail. The formula works perfectly for the example's use case, in which all of the numbers are of the same length. But if you are looking for a shorter number that happens to appear in the string, you get a false positive.
Is there an alternative to "SEARCH" that is more literal (again, is that the word? haha)? 
Thanks! 
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crystal
crystal     Scott S.
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Hi Scott S.,Do you mean search for the exact string?
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Scott S.
Scott S.     crystal
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Hi, Crystal.
Yes, I suppose that is the way to phrase it. 
The current solution will return “Yes” for any part of the number string. So the numbers 1, 2, 3, 12, 23, and 123 will all return “Yes”. 
I have been trying to come up with a solution that will search a string of numbers and return “Yes” for an exact match. 
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crystal
crystal     Scott S.
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Hi Scott S,Thanks for your feedback. I haven't found the solution yet and will get back to you if I found it.
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m.swartz55
m.swartz55     crystal
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I have found a solution. If you add a comma to the left and right of your list it will require the search function to find an exact match from comma to comma. See example below:
=IF(ISNUMBER(SEARCH(",12,",A2)),"yes","no")

,312,123,10,112,126,
This will return false because there is no variable from comma to comma (,12,) that matches the search. 
If you need further clarification let me know and ill post a better example.I was having the same problem when automating a report for my boss and had an epiphany. :)
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Hassam
Hassam     m.swartz55
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Hey, I still cant figure this out. I am still having the same problem. instead of using number in the formula I am using a cell reference. for example if i am searching for "1"(Q$1) in (123, 25,29,200)($J2) it is still giving me YES. The formula is =IF(ISNUMBER(SEARCH(Q$1,$J2)),"yes","no")

PS: I have a big data set I cannot put commas before and after in every cell. Will appreciate a solution
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Mariah S.
Mariah S.     crystal
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I have found a solution for this. If you add a comma to the left and right of your list and include them (like a sandwich) in your search it'll allow you to find an exact match. Example below:
,123,231,321,122,321,1,2,3,23,
SEARCH(",23,")
This way it forces the search to match from one comma to the other rather than just part of the entry from the list. Hope this is what you were looking for?
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tapastkrtapan
tapastkrtapan
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Good Morning to all.I have a excel question that how to count comma separated specific values in a single cell in excel.I want to count no of 15's in a single cell that contains 15,215,15,155,45,1515,15 I need the result 3. Is there any formula in excel.
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m.swartz55
m.swartz55     tapastkrtapan
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Yes, there is a function in Excel that can do this for you. However, as explained in the problem above to gain better accuracy for your data add a comma to the left and right of your list and include it in your search. See example below:
,15,215,15,155,45,1515,15,
=COUNTIF(A1, ",15,")
The explanation of this formula is as follows: =COUNTIF(cell number or range, value your looking for/counting)
Let me know if you need a better example.
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