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Top 3 Methods to Find Special Characters in Excel

John Michaloudis
When we import large datasets from other sources to Excel, we may come across special characters such as punctuation marks, mathematical operators, currency signs, and more.
These special characters in Excel aren't always needed and can make it tricky to work with the data, like when we want to sort or organize it.
Top 3 Methods to Find Special Characters in Excel | MyExcelOnline Top 3 Methods to Find Special Characters in Excel | MyExcelOnline

To achieve clean data, finding and managing these special characters can be crucial. These characters might need to be located to ensure consistent and accurate data management.

In this article, we will cover the following topics in detail –

Let us explore these methods one by one!

 

Download the Excel Workbook below to follow along and understand how to find special characters in Excel –

download excel workbookFind-Special-Character-in-Excel.xlsm

 

Method 1 – Using Search Function

We need to use a combination of functions to check the presence of special characters in Excel. In this example, we will be using SUMPRODUCT, ISNUMBER, and SEARCH functions to achieve the desired result.

In this example, we have a list of employee IDs that need to be cleaned. Employee IDs should only contain alphabets, numbers. We need to check which of the employee IDs are correct and which are not. Incorrect IDs would contain all special characters like “#”, “-“, “&”, “_”, “!”, “@”, “^”, and “$”.

Follow the steps below to find special characters in Excel –

STEP 1:  Enter the SEARCH function with two arguments –

  1. The first argument is all the special characters (within quotes, separated by comma and enclosed in curly brackets)
  2. The second argument is the cell containing the text i.e. A2

=SEARCH({“_”,”&”,”!”,”#”,”$”,”%”,”(“,”)”,”^”,”@”,”[“,”]”,”{“,”}”,”-“},A2)

Top 3 Methods to Find Special Characters in Excel

This formula will search the content of cell A2 for any of the specified special characters enclosed in the curly braces and return the position of the first occurrence of each character. If no match is found, it returns an error.

STEP 2:  Enter the ISNUMBER function.

=ISNUMBER(SEARCH({“_”,”&”,”!”,”#”,”$”,”%”,”(“,”)”,”^”,”@”,”[“,”]”,”{“,”}”,”-“},A2))

Top 3 Methods to Find Special Characters in Excel

This function will return TRUE if a match is found (i.e., the position of the special character is a number), and FALSE if no match is found.

STEP 3:  Enter the double minus sign (–) in front of the ISNUMBER function.

=–ISNUMBER(SEARCH({“_”,”&”,”!”,”#”,”$”,”%”,”(“,”)”,”^”,”@”,”[“,”]”,”{“,”}”,”-“},A2))

Top 3 Methods to Find Special Characters in Excel

This function will convert the Boolean values into 1s and 0s. So, TRUE becomes 1, and FALSE becomes 0.

STEP 4:  Enter the SUMPRODUCT function.

=SUMPRODUCT(–ISNUMBER(SEARCH({“_”,”&”,”!”,”#”,”$”,”%”,”(“,”)”,”^”,”@”,”[“,”]”,”{“,”}”,”-“},A2)))

Top 3 Methods to Find Special Characters in Excel

This function will add up all the 1s and 0s from the previous step.

STEP 5:  Enter “=0” at the end of the formula.

=SUMPRODUCT(–ISNUMBER(SEARCH({“_”,”&”,”!”,”#”,”$”,”%”,”(“,”)”,”^”,”@”,”[“,”]”,”{“,”}”,”-“},A2)))=0

Top 3 Methods to Find Special Characters in Excel

If the summation is equal to zero that means there are no special characters in the contents of cell A2, the function will return TRUE. If there is at least one of the specified special characters found in the cell content, the function will return FALSE.

STEP 6:  Copy the formula down.

Top 3 Methods to Find Special Characters in Excel

If the cell contents are free from any of the specified characters then the function will return TRUE or else it will return TRUE.

 

Method 2 – Using User Defined Function

As Excel lacks a dedicated function for locating special characters, we can create one to do the task. We can easily create a User Defined Function to find special characters in Excel by following the steps below

STEP 1:  Go to Developer Tab > Visual Basic.

Top 3 Methods to Find Special Characters in Excel

STEP 2:  Go to Insert > Module.

Top 3 Methods to Find Special Characters in Excel

STEP 3:  Enter the code mentioned below –

<br />
Public Function Check(inputString As String) As String<br />
Dim length As Long<br />
Dim charAtIndex As String<br />
Check = &amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;quot;Correct&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;quot;</p>
<p>For length = 1 To Len(inputString)<br />
charAtIndex = Mid(inputString, length, 1)<br />
If charAtIndex Like &amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;quot;[0-9a-zA-Z]&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;quot; Then<br />
Else<br />
Check = &amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;quot;Incorrect&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;quot;<br />
Exit Function<br />
End If<br />
Next length<br />
End Function<br />

Top 3 Methods to Find Special Characters in Excel

STEP 4:  Press Ctrl + S to save the file as a macro-enabled workbook. Click No.

Top 3 Methods to Find Special Characters in Excel

STEP 5:  In the drop-down, select Excel Macro Enabled Workbook.

Top 3 Methods to Find Special Characters in Excel

STEP 6: Enter the Check function with cell A2 as the argument.

Top 3 Methods to Find Special Characters in Excel

Here, the function will display “Correct” when the contents of the cell contain only alphabet and letters and “Incorrect” when it contains special characters.

Top 3 Methods to Find Special Characters in Excel

 

Method 3 – Using Power Query

Excel’s Power Query is a robust tool that lets you perform data transformations without complex formulas or manual work. It’s like a game-changer for managing data, and can also be used to find special characters.

Power Query can be used to locate and remove special characters from the contents of the cells. Follow the steps below to achieve the same –

STEP 1: Go to Data > From Table/Range.

Top 3 Methods to Find Special Characters in Excel

STEP 2: In the Create Table dialog box, select the data and press OK.

Top 3 Methods to Find Special Characters in Excel

STEP 3: Go to Add Column > Custom Column.

Top 3 Methods to Find Special Characters in Excel

STEP 4: In the Custom Column dialog box, enter –

  • Cleaned Employee IDs as New column name.
  • =Text.Select([Employee IDs],{“A”..”Z”,”0″..”9″}) as Custom column formula.

Press OK.

Top 3 Methods to Find Special Characters in Excel

A new column with cleaned data containing only alphabets and numbers will be added.

Top 3 Methods to Find Special Characters in Excel

STEP 5: Go to Home > Close & Load.

Top 3 Methods to Find Special Characters in Excel

The table will now be added as a new worksheet in the file.

Top 3 Methods to Find Special Characters in Excel

Now, Employee IDs are free from special characters, making them suitable for sorting, filtering, and other data operations without any hindrance.

 

Conclusion

When importing large datasets into Excel, special characters like symbols and signs can appear, making data handling complex. By embracing the techniques mentioned above, data cleanliness and efficient processing can be achieved

To address this, we can use a combination of SUMPRODUCT, ISNUMBER, and SEARCH functions to locate special characters. Another method includes creating a User-Defined Function (UDF) and the third method is to use Power Query.

Further Learning:

Click here to learn more about the data cleaning function in Power Query.

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Founder & Chief Inspirational Officer at

John Michaloudis is a former accountant and finance analyst at General Electric, a Microsoft MVP since 2020, an Amazon #1 bestselling author of 4 Microsoft Excel books and teacher of Microsoft Excel & Office over at his flagship MyExcelOnline Academy Online Course.

See also  Create a Random List with Excel's RAND Formula

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