Searching for specific letter in specific location in cells

**pmoniz** · 04-11-2013, 11:56 AM

Hi All,

New here and have a question regarding search criteria. I have a spreadsheet with a column that I need to search. The column contains a series of numbers and letters.
For example the column might contain cells with the following information
B111S5A
B222S5B
B333S4A
A444S4CA

I need to filter or search so that all the cells that contain the letter A in the 7th position only are selected. In the example above the first and third would be selected but the fourth wouldn't since the letter A is in the 1st and 8th position - not the 7th.

Is this possible and if so what would the correct formula be?

Thanks,
Pam

**outofthehat** · 04-11-2013, 12:09 PM

Use wildcard characters in your filter. The ? character represents an individual letter, so if you filter on a custom filter equal to ??????A*, it'll return only those entries with A as the 7th character.

**pmoniz** · 04-11-2013, 12:17 PM

Much apologies, but I am such a slow learner in excel. So do I "filter" in the data tab because the advanced filter is confusing.
filter.jpg

**outofthehat** · 04-12-2013, 02:16 AM

Yes, either Data > Filter or Home > Sort&Filter > Filter. Once you have the dropdown arrow at the top of the column, choose Text Filters > Custom Filter, and set it to 'equal to' ??????A*.