Use the Google Sheets SEARCH function to get the position of the first character of a string within text. Unlike the FIND function, SEARCH is not case-sensitive. For this function, you have to compulsorily specify two attributes. The third one is optional.

Let’s look at the format of the Google Sheets SEARCH function:

=SEARCH(search_for, text_to_search, [starting_at])

Start the formula with an equal-to symbol.

search_for is the string, whose position of the first character you want to get inside the text.

text_to_search is the text the function should search for the string.

starting_at is optional, and is the position in the text from which to start the search.

Here is an example of the SEARCH formula:

=SEARCH(/”balance/” /”balance sheet/”)

The function returns 1, as it is the position of the first character /”b/”.

We will look at another example of the Google Sheets SEARCH function, this time using the optional starting_at attribute:

=SEARCH(/”Management/” /”business management/

Please take the opportunity to connect and share this video with your friends and family if you find it useful.