Finding Similar Text in Excel

Jasmin Morel
Jasmin Morel
May 20, 2022

 

Excel is a great tool that serves many goals. One of Excel's advantages lies in its ability to handle large amounts of text. However, when dealing with massive amounts of text you sometimes need to check if certain expressions appear in the text.

Towards that end pwrREGEXMATCH had been developed. With this handy function you can sift through what could easily have been daunting amounts of text and quickly check if your expressions of choice appear within that bulk of text.

pwrREGEXMATCH – finding similar text in Excel

In order to use this handy function, simply choose the 'PowerUps' option from the main tool bar:

 

 

Finding similar text

 

Then, select the 'PowerUps Functions' option:

 

 

Similar text in Excel

 

Then, select the 'Text Analyzer ' option and the 'pwrREGEXMATCH' function from the list of available functions:

 

 

How to find similar text

 

After you choose the pwrREGEXMATCH function an additional function window will appear as is the case with all of Excel's functions. Use the 'Str1' field to select the original text in which the desired expression will be searched. Choose the 'Pattern' field to choose the expression you'd like to have searched within the original text.

 

 

Similar text window

 

The function's return value will be the expression that was found within the text. This will make it easier to check if certain expressions, which consist of a single word or several words, appear within a bulk of text:

 

 

Finding similar text via Excel

 

And, you're done! Now you can easily and quickly look for simple or complex expressions within bulks of text in Excel!

Good luck!