Excel ISTEXT Function is a handy tool that allows you to check if a cell contains text or not. It’s like having a digital detective to find out if there are words, phrases, or characters in a cell. This function can be useful for various tasks, such as verifying data, creating dynamic spreadsheets, or setting up conditional formatting rules.
Syntax
ISTEXT(value)
Arguments
| value | Cell or reference that you want to check for text. |
How to use
You can use the ISTEXT function in Excel to determine whether a cell contains text. Let’s go through a few examples to see how it works:
Example 1: Basic Usage
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=ISTEXT(A1) |
This formula checks if cell A1 contains text and returns TRUE if it does and FALSE if it doesn’t.
Example 2: Using ISTEXT with IF Function
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=IF(ISTEXT(A2), "Text found", "No text") |
This formula combines ISTEXT with the IF function to display “Text found” if cell A2 contains text and “No text” if it doesn’t.
Example 3: Checking Multiple Cells
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=ISTEXT(A1)+ISTEXT(B1)+ISTEXT(C1) |
You can use ISTEXT to check multiple cells at once. In this example, it sums up the results for cells A1, B1, and C1. If any of these cells contain text, the result will be greater than 0.
Example 4: Using ISTEXT with Conditional Formatting
If you want to highlight cells with text, you can set up conditional formatting using the ISTEXT function. Select the range you want to format, go to “Home” > “Conditional Formatting,” and choose “New Rule.” Then, use a formula like =ISTEXT(A1) in the conditional formatting rule.
Remember that the ISTEXT function is case-insensitive, so it will return TRUE for any type of text, including numbers stored as text.
Additionally, you can use the ISNUMBER function to check if a cell contains a numeric value, and ISBLANK to check if a cell is empty.
