Finding Text in One Cell and Adding Data to the Cell Below It in Excel

Excel provides a variety of functions that allow you to manipulate and work with text and numbers. Two key functions that we will use in this scenario are FIND and MID.

  • FIND: This function is used to locate the position of a substring in a string. The syntax is FIND(find_text, within_text, [start_num]).
  • MID: This function extracts a specific number of characters from a text string, starting at the position you specify. The syntax is MID(text, start_num, num_chars).

Procedure

To find a specific text in one cell and add data to the cell below it, we can follow these steps:

  1. Use the FIND function to locate the position of the specific text in the cell.
  2. Use the MID function to extract the text after the specific text.
  3. Convert the extracted text to a number using the VALUE function.
  4. Add the desired data to the extracted number.

Scenario

Let’s consider a scenario where we have a cell A1 with the text “Order123: 15” and we want to add 5 to the number after “Order123: “.

Here’s how we can do it:

  1. Find the position of “:” using FIND function: FIND(":", A1). Let’s say it returns the position 8.
  2. Extract the number after “:” using MID function: MID(A1, 8+2, LEN(A1)-8). This returns the text “15”.
  3. Convert “15” to a number using VALUE function: VALUE(MID(A1, 8+2, LEN(A1)-8)). This returns the number 15.
  4. Add 5 to the number 15: VALUE(MID(A1, 8+2, LEN(A1)-8)) + 5. This returns the number 20.

So, the final formula is VALUE(MID(A1, FIND(":", A1)+2, LEN(A1)-FIND(":", A1))) + 5.

Cell Formula Result
A1 Order123: 15
B1 =VALUE(MID(A1, FIND(“:”, A1)+2, LEN(A1)-FIND(“:”, A1))) + 5 20

Other Approaches

Another approach is to use the REPLACE and SUBSTITUTE functions to manipulate the text and numbers. However, this might be more complex and less straightforward than the method described above. The choice of method depends on the specific requirements and complexity of the data you are working with.

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