In Microsoft Excel, two wildcards are available for filtering – and they can be used directly in the quick filter, or in the extended search.
Excel Custom auto filter
Putting the character ? will replace any character
Putting the character * will replace any string
Using wildcard *
If * is placed at the beginning of a search, result will contain all possibilities ending with given string – if placed at the end, result will contain all possibilities starting with the string
Results starting with a string
And entering part of a string without a wildcard will return all result, regardless the position of the search in the result
Results containing a string
How to look for strings containing a wildcard ?
Table containing wildcards * and ? characters
In order to find results containing the wildcards * or ?, preceded these wildcards with a tilde sign ~, as below for a search of strings containing one *
Wildcard preceded with tilde ~ returns strings containing it
Or as below for a string containing ***, three times a star
Researching succession of wildcards preceded with tilde ~
Searching for the *** without tilde will simply return all results
Wildcards *** does not return string containing the characters
