How-To Search Cells in Excel

The 'Search Cells' action in Foxtrot is used to search cells in Excel. You can either search a custom "Cell Range" or a table of cells depending on your target.

To make the 'Search Cells' action, target the blue targets bar and select either the "Cell Range" option (as shown in the below screenshot) or one of the table target options. The difference between the two target options is that the "Cell Range" target is a custom range of cells that you specify where the table target options are automatically detected by Foxtrot using the current region property in Excel.

This is how the action looks. If you choose the "Cell Range" target, start by setting your cell range in the left side of the action.

Specify the type of search you would like to perform. The following search options are available:

• Search for the cell Text - Search the text visible in the cell
• Search for the raw value - Search the real value of the cell as displayed in Excel formula bar

Then, specify the search criteria (e.g. "beginning with") and the value to search for.

Specify how the search will be performed. Start by selecting the search direction :

• Search forward - search forward through the target cells
• Search backward - start backward through the target cells

From the second drop-down, select the starting location  of the search:

• Start at the first cell - start at the first cell in the target range (this option is only available if searching in the forward direction)
• Start at the last cell - start at the last cell in the target range (this option is only available if searching in the backward direction)
• Start at the active cell - start at the active cell and search forward or backward (depending on the direction chosen)

From the third drop-down, select what should be selected upon running the search:

• Select the first matching cell - replace the current selection with first matching cell
• Select all matching cells - replace the current selection with all matching cells
• Keep original selection and active matching cell- make no changes to the current selection and simply activate the first matching cells
• Make no change - make no changes to the current selection (this option allows you to store the Results of the search without making changes to the current selection)

To perform a case-sensitive search, enable the option that reads Must match case.

You may also specify to Ignore beginning and ending spaces.

Certain operators will enable a new option to Ignore empty cells when conducting the search.

You can optionally select how the results are stored.  The following results can be stored:

• Search success - stores a True or False indicating if a search result was found.  When using this option, click on the ellipses button to select the destination of the search result
• Matching cell count - stores the total number of cells matching the search criteria. When using this option, click on the ellipses button to select the destination of the matching cell count