How to Find and Replace in Excel

To find and replace in Excel, press Ctrl + H, type the text you’re looking for in Find what, type the new text in Replace with, and click Replace All. Excel changes every match on the sheet and tells you how many it replaced. Select a range first to limit it to those cells. Below are the options that make it precise, wildcard tricks and formula alternatives.

Basic find and replace

1. Optional: select the cells, columns or rows you want to change. Otherwise Excel searches the whole sheet.
2. Press Ctrl + H, or go to Home > Find & Select > Replace.
3. Type the text or number in Find what.
4. Type the replacement in Replace with. Leave it empty to delete the matches.
5. Click Find Next to check the first match, then Replace to change it one at a time, or Replace All to change them all.

If the result isn’t what you wanted, close the dialog and press Ctrl + Z to undo the whole Replace All in one step.

Find without replacing

Press Ctrl + F to open the Find tab. Find All lists every match with its sheet, cell and value. Click a row to jump to it, or press Ctrl + A in the list to select all the matching cells at once, so you can format or delete them together. For filters and formulas that search, see how to search for something in Excel.

Use the options to avoid mistakes

Click Options >> in the dialog to see these settings:

Option	What it does	Example
Within: Sheet / Workbook	Search the current sheet or every sheet	Rename a product across all monthly tabs
Search: By Rows / By Columns	The order Excel moves through cells	Rarely matters for Replace All
Look in	Formulas, Values, Notes or Comments (Replace only searches Formulas)	Find a value that’s the result of a formula
Match case	Only matches the same capitals	Replace “US” but not “us”
Match entire cell contents	Only matches cells that contain exactly that text	Replace “N/A” without changing “N/A pending”
Format	Find or replace by formatting	Change all red text to black

Match entire cell contents is the one that prevents most accidents. Replacing “cat” with “dog” without it also turns “category” into “dogegory”.

Wildcards

Excel’s Find and Replace understands three wildcard characters:

• * matches any number of characters. Inv* finds Invoice, Inventory and Inv-2024.
• ? matches exactly one character. b?t finds bat, bet and bit.
• ~ tells Excel to treat the next character literally. To find an actual asterisk, search for ~*.

A handy trick: find (*) and replace with nothing to strip everything in parentheses, including the brackets.

Replace line breaks and special characters

• Line breaks inside a cell: click in Find what and press Ctrl + J. The box looks empty, but it holds the line break. Replace it with a space or a comma.
• Extra spaces: find two spaces and replace with one, and repeat until Excel finds nothing. Or use TRIM (see how to remove a space before text in Excel).
• Non-breaking spaces from the web: type Alt + 0160 on the number pad in Find what.

Find and replace formatting

1. In the Replace tab, click Options, then Format next to Find what.
2. Choose the formatting to look for, or click Choose Format From Cell and click a sample cell.
3. Click Format next to Replace with and set the new formatting.
4. Leave both text boxes empty and click Replace All.

Click Format > Clear Find Format afterward, or later searches will only find cells with that formatting.

Formula alternatives

Find and Replace changes the cells themselves. To keep the original data and put the cleaned version in another column, use a formula:

Function	Example	Result
SUBSTITUTE	=SUBSTITUTE(A2,"Ltd","Limited")	Replaces matching text
REPLACE	=REPLACE(A2,1,3,"")	Removes the first 3 characters
REGEXREPLACE (Microsoft 365)	=REGEXREPLACE(A2,"[0-9]","")	Removes all digits

More pattern examples are in how to use REGEXEXTRACT in Excel and how to remove characters from a cell.

Troubleshooting

“We couldn’t find what you were looking for”

Check for extra spaces, a different case with Match case on, or Match entire cell contents switched on from a previous search. Also check Within and whether you selected a small range before opening the dialog.

Numbers didn’t change

What you see may be a formatted number. Excel searches the stored value, so a cell showing $1,200 actually holds 1200. Search for the plain number.

Replace broke my formulas

Replace searches inside formulas, so replacing a sheet name or “A1” can change references. Undo with Ctrl + Z, then turn on Match entire cell contents or select only the data cells before replacing.

Mac and Excel for the web

On a Mac, press Control + H or use Edit > Find > Replace. In Excel for the web, press Ctrl + H or go to Home > Find & Select > Replace. The web version has fewer options and no format search.

Summary

1. Press Ctrl + H.
2. Enter Find what and Replace with.
3. Turn on Match case or Match entire cell contents if needed.
4. Click Replace All, then check the result and undo with Ctrl + Z if necessary.

Related: how to insert a comment in Excel.