11/18/24, 4:21 PM How to Create a Search Box in Excel (4 Easy Methods)

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Home » Excel Formulas » How to Create a Search Box in Excel (4 Easy Methods)

How to Create a Search Box in Excel (4 Easy

Methods)
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Last updated: Jul 3, 2024
Souptik Roy

We have a dataset regarding the Bill Status of a Corporation. This dataset consists of four columns:
Customer ID, Customer Name, Bill, and Status. We have 10 rows of data in the worksheet. We will
create a search box to go through the dataset.

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Method 1 – Use Conditional Formatting to Create a Search Box in Excel

Steps:

Make a cell where you want to search for any data. We have selected the H2 cell.

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Select the range B5:E14.

Go to the Home tab on the toolbar and select Conditional Formatting.

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Under Conditional Formatting, click on the New Rule option.

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You’ll get a New Formatting Rule window. Select the option Use a formula to determine which
cells to format.
You’ll get a Formula Bar.

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Enter the formula given below in the box.

=SEARCH($H$2,$B5&$C5&$D5&$E5)

Go to Format.

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Select a color to see the searched result in the dataset from the Fill tab. We have selected a
yellow color.
Press the OK button.

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You’ll get the preview of the formatting. Press OK.

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The whole dataset will be highlighted since the search box is empty.

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In cell H2, enter any text, and you will find the resulting row highlighted in yellow.

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Method 2 – Use the FILTER Function to Create a Search Box in Excel

Steps:

We’ll use the same dataset.

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Select a cell to make a search box. We’ll use cell C16. Add borders and some surrounding
formatting if you want.
Make a result box from B18 to E19. This will display the resulting rows.

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In cell B19, enter the formula given below:

=FILTER(B5:E14,C5:C14=C16, “NO MATCH FOUND”)

In this formula, B5:E14 is the range of values to be filtered, C5:C14=C16 is the criteria to be matched,
and “NO MATCH FOUND” is the value to be returned when no entries meet the criteria.

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Enter a name into the search box. You will see the whole result.

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Read More: How to Create a Filtering Search Box for Your Excel Data

Method 3 – Create a Search Box Using the ISNUMBER Function

Steps:

Select the H2 cell to make a search box and format it a bit (see image).

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From the ribbon, select the Home tab.

Go to Conditional Formatting and select New Rule.

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Select the option Use a formula to determine which cells to format.

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In the formula bar, insert the formula given below:

=ISNUMBER(SEARCH($H$2,B5))

Cick on the Format button.

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From the Fill tab, select any color. We have selected a blue color.
Press OK.

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You can preview the selected color. Press OK.

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You will see the whole dataset with the same blue color after formatting.

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Search for a value in the search box. You will find the result filled with blue color.

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Method 4 – Apply the IFERROR Function to Create a Search Box in Excel

Steps:

We’ll use a different dataset ranging from B4 to D14.

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We moved our dataset from B4-D14 to F5-H14.

Select cell C4 to make a search box.

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In E6, enter the formula given below:

=IFERROR(SEARCH($C$4,F6)+ROW()/100000,"")

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$C$4 is the text which is going to be searched.

F6 is the cell number to perform the search.

After searching, the function returns a value. This value is added to the ROW number, and then
divided by 100000.

The IFERROR function returns the exact value if there is no error.

“” is the argument meaning the IFERROR function will return nothing if there is no error.

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Use the Fill Handle to paste the formula from E6 to E15.

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In D6, enter the formula given below:

=IFERROR(RANK(E6,$E$6:$E$15,1),"")

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E6 is a value for which we will find the rank.

$E$6:$E$15 is a range of cells to be ranked.

1 is a number to specify the order. Here, 1 is for ascending order.

The IFERROR function will work just like explained earlier.

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Use the Fill Handle copy the formula from D6 to D15.

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Input numbers from B6 to B15 into D6 to D15.

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In the C6 cell, input the formula given below:

=IFERROR(VLOOKUP(B6,$D$6:$F15,3,FALSE),"")

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B6 is the cell that you want to look up.

$D$6:$F15 is the range of cells you want to look for.

3 is the column number in the range to return the containing value.

FALSE indicates to return a match.

Then the IFERROR function will work just like explained earlier.

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Use the Fill Handle to input the formula to the whole column.

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Input data into the search box. You can see the result below.
You can apply additional formatting or hide the helper columns.

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Things to Remember
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You need to use Excel 365 for the FILTER function.

The VLOOKUP Function only looks up from right to left.

Download the Practice Workbook

 Search Box in Excel.xlsx

Related Articles
Create a Search Box in Excel with VBA
How to Create a Search Box in Excel Without VBA
How to Create a Search Box in Excel for Multiple Sheets

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Souptik Roy, a BSc graduate in Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering from Bangladesh University of
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articles and reviewed 20+ for ExcelDemy. Presently, he is a designer and content developer at
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