{"id":3523,"date":"2018-11-30T16:01:44","date_gmt":"2018-11-30T16:01:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/officetuts.net\/excel\/?p=3523"},"modified":"2024-03-28T10:34:34","modified_gmt":"2024-03-28T10:34:34","slug":"how-to-replace-wildcard-characters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/officetuts.net\/excel\/examples\/how-to-replace-wildcard-characters\/","title":{"rendered":"Replace Wildcard Characters in Excel"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Wildcard characters such as a ? (question mark) and * (asterisk) are used to represent a single character or any number of characters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Example:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table><tbody><tr><td>? (question mark)<\/td><td>Finds a single character.<br>For example, d??m finds \u201cdoom\u201d and \u201cdorm\u201d<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>* (asterisk)<\/td><td>Finds a number of characters.<br>For example, c*d finds connected and caged<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>But, what if you want to replace a wildcard character inside a string?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In this article, I\u2019ll show you how you can do it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Replacing a wildcard character<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ol>\n<li>Select a cell with text and a wildcard character.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"173\" height=\"60\" src=\"https:\/\/officetuts.net\/excel\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2018\/11\/wildcard-character-example.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-3529\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<ol start=\"2\">\n<li>Press Ctrl + H to open the Find and Replace window.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>In <strong>Find What<\/strong> text area press <strong>Shift + ~<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Delete one tilde.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>In the <strong>Replace with<\/strong> type a word.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"443\" height=\"194\" src=\"https:\/\/officetuts.net\/excel\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2018\/11\/find-and-replace-tilde.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-3528\" srcset=\"https:\/\/officetuts.net\/excel\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2018\/11\/find-and-replace-tilde.png 443w, https:\/\/officetuts.net\/excel\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2018\/11\/find-and-replace-tilde-300x131.png 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 443px) 100vw, 443px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<ol start=\"6\">\n<li>Press <strong>Replace<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n<p>This will give us the following result.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"222\" height=\"60\" src=\"https:\/\/officetuts.net\/excel\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2018\/11\/wildcard-character-text-changed.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-3530\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>If we didn\u2019t use a tilde and asterisk (~*), just asterisk (*) the result would be like this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"173\" height=\"60\" src=\"https:\/\/officetuts.net\/excel\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2018\/11\/bad-result.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-3527\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Excel would treat an asterisk as any number of characters (all the text in a cell) and convert it to a word in replace with. In our case, it would be \u201cstandard\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Wildcard characters such as a ? (question mark) and * (asterisk) are used to represent a single character or any number of characters&#8230;.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[190],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Replace Wildcard Characters in Excel<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Replace wildcard characters inside a string using Excel&#039;s Find and Replace feature. Use ? and * for single or multiple characters.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/officetuts.net\/excel\/examples\/how-to-replace-wildcard-characters\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Replace Wildcard Characters in Excel\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Replace wildcard characters inside a string using Excel&#039;s Find and Replace feature. Use ? and * for single or multiple characters.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/officetuts.net\/excel\/examples\/how-to-replace-wildcard-characters\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-11-30T16:01:44+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-03-28T10:34:34+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/officetuts.net\/excel\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2018\/11\/wildcard-character-example.png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Tomasz Decker\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Tomasz Decker\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/officetuts.net\/excel\/examples\/how-to-replace-wildcard-characters\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/officetuts.net\/excel\/examples\/how-to-replace-wildcard-characters\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Tomasz Decker\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/officetuts.net\/excel\/#\/schema\/person\/41b0b6996aaa4c4127f86f3d24452d42\"},\"headline\":\"Replace Wildcard Characters in Excel\",\"datePublished\":\"2018-11-30T16:01:44+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-03-28T10:34:34+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/officetuts.net\/excel\/examples\/how-to-replace-wildcard-characters\/\"},\"wordCount\":178,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/officetuts.net\/excel\/#\/schema\/person\/41b0b6996aaa4c4127f86f3d24452d42\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/officetuts.net\/excel\/examples\/how-to-replace-wildcard-characters\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\/\/officetuts.net\/excel\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2018\/11\/wildcard-character-example.png\",\"keywords\":[\"pinterest\"],\"articleSection\":[\"examples\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/officetuts.net\/excel\/examples\/how-to-replace-wildcard-characters\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/officetuts.net\/excel\/examples\/how-to-replace-wildcard-characters\/\",\"name\":\"Replace Wildcard Characters in Excel\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/officetuts.net\/excel\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/officetuts.net\/excel\/examples\/how-to-replace-wildcard-characters\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/officetuts.net\/excel\/examples\/how-to-replace-wildcard-characters\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\/\/officetuts.net\/excel\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2018\/11\/wildcard-character-example.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2018-11-30T16:01:44+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-03-28T10:34:34+00:00\",\"description\":\"Replace wildcard characters inside a string using Excel's Find and Replace feature. 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