The Advanced Find and Replace add-on for Google Sheets looks for any value you need all over your spreadsheets or in the selected range. Scan your data for formulas, notes, hyperlinks, or errors. A handy tree view lets you navigate between the found records easily. Replace some or all of them at once, or export the results to a new sheet — everything is within one tool.
Advanced Find and Replace doesn't process dates to avoid data corruption. The thing is, the add-on don't get dates the same way you see them. All dates appear as a combination of numeric characters that differ from the date format displayed to you in the sheet, e.g. the add-on sees "Mon May 05 2014 00:00:00 GMT" instead of "5/5/2014". This is the reason why neither search nor replacement will return correct results for dates.
Open the add-on from Add-ons > Advanced Find and Replace > Start in the Google Sheets menu:
You will see the add-on pane offering you to fine-tune searching options:
It's also possible to limit the search to the selected range with the corresponding Selected range option.
Click the Find all button to work with the results.
You will see all the found entries grouped by sheet on the Search results tab:
Click Replace all to switch all found results to the new entry or select the values you'd like to replace in the search results and click Replace.
To select multiple adjacent entries, click the first one in the list, press and hold Shift, and click the last entry in the list. All the records in-between will be highlighted automatically.
To select multiple adjacent entries, click the first one in the list, press and hold Shift, and click the last entry in the list. All the records in-between will be highlighted automatically.
If you want to search for the same type of data in the same sheets, change the search term in the Find what field at the top and click Find all to refresh the results.
To start a new search with different settings, press New search in the bottom right corner of the sidebar.
How do I Find and Replace duplicate Line Feeds in the text in a Cell?
Cntl+J works in Excel but not in Google Sheets. I have tried Alt+010 and Alt+013 too but I must be doing something incorrectly.
Hello, Mark,
Thank you for your question.
If I understand your request correctly, you're trying to find cells where line breaks are used. To do that, place the cursor into the Find what field in the add-on and press Alt+Enter. Or go ahead and paste the following directly into the search field:
[Line break]
In case your task is more complicated than that, please share your sample spreadsheet with us - gapps.ablebits@gmail.com - with your example data and the result you expect to get. I kindly ask you to shorten the table to 10-20 rows.
We'll look into the task and do our best to help.
I'm trying to find the cases in my sheet where "u" is followed by "ui" the problem is that "u" and "ui" are in different cells and I'm looking for cases when they are next to each other. How would I go about doing this?
Thank you, I hope I'm being clear enough.
Thank you for your interest in our product, Jonah.
I'm afraid our Advanced Find and Replace cannot search for values based on records in neighboring cells.
I can think of a couple workarounds though, with merging and splitting or exporting the data. But for me to be able to advise you better, please share a small sample spreadsheet with us (gapps.ablebits@gmail.com) with your source data and the result you expect to get. I kindly ask you to shorten the table to 10-20 rows.
I'll look into your task and see if our software can help.
Hello,
Can I replace with formatted text in Google Sheets?
Thanks
Hello Marc,
Unfortunately it is impossible to preserve formatting when replacing text in Google Sheets.
Please contact us again if you have any other questions.
Hello,
I have a spreadsheet with phone numbers, and I want to change the start of the number to a country code, but I can't find a way to do that. ex. numbers starting with 21 and wanting to add 216 behind that number.
Thank you
Hello Mishal,
Our Advanced Find and Replace and Add text tools can help you solve the task:
Hope this helps.
Hey Natalie,
Thanks for the reply, this worked perfectly. Really appreciate the fast responds of the Ablebits.com Team.
Keep up the good work.
You're most welcome, Mishal.
Glad we could help! 🙂
How do I find any text and replace all text with a single word eg.
I like dogs
Dogs are great
I want a dog
If I searched for the word "dog" and wanted to replace the whole cell with just the word "dog".
Thank you for your interest in our product, Andrea.
When you set searching criteria, please pick to search By mask and enter the following:
*dog*
The add-on will find all cells сontaining "dog", no matter what's written before or after that.
The replacement will then change the entire cell contents with whatever you need. 🙂
Is there a way to replace all of my options with just a blank cell?
Thanks
Hello Shah,
Sure. Simply do not enter anything into the Replace with field. Just click Replace all right away - all found values will be replaced with blanks.
What if you want to delete a specific row or column that has a specific set of characters and not just leave an empty space where that cell is.
Hello Daniel,
I'm sorry, I'm afraid this feature is currently unavailable in the add-on. But since it's a common request, we are going to add it to the next version of the tool.
In the meantime, you could check out another tool – Multiple VLOOKUP Matches. It can pull entire rows if cells there don't contain specific info. Perhaps you'll find it helpful. Please read more about the add-on here: https://www.ablebits.com/docs/google-sheets-multiple-vlookup-matches/
Is there a way to find all cells of a specific color? Or find cells based on a range of values (ex: I need to find and replace all cells that have values within 1-50)?
Thanks
Hello Justin,
Unfortunately, we do not have a tool that can find all cells of a specific color. As for the search based on a range of values, our Find and Replace add-on won't help with this task either. I can only recommend you to try the search by mask. For example, if you enter 1? in the Find what: field, the add-on will display all cells that contain numbers from 10 to 19.
Is there a way to find and replace across multiple workbooks? I have a folder of 90 documents which all have the same error that needs to be replaced and I’m trying to find a way to avoid opening each one individually and doing a find and replace.
Hello Abigail,
Thank you for contacting us. Please note the add-on works for open sheets only. You can see a list of all open sheets in the sidebar and select checkboxes next to them. The Replace all button will switch all found results to the new entry at once.
I'm using Find and Replace across a workbook with about 20 sheets. There are no formulas or calculations to speak of. I have removed all unnecessary cells from each sheet but when I do a search it takes an incredibly long time. Many of the cells on each sheet have formatting of some kind. How does that slow down the search process or must it be something else?
Thanks.
Hello Dean,
Thank you for contacting us. Sorry to hear you are having issues with our add-on.
For us to be able to help you better, please share a small sample spreadsheet with us support@4-bits.com (1 sheet would be enough, if all of them have the same structure). One of our developers will try to reproduce the problem on our side and find its cause.
Can I search for a string and replace it with the same string plus a line feed?
Hello Paul,
Thank you for for your question. Our Advanced Find & Replace tool can search for a string and replace it with a string + a line break. To enter a line break into the "Replace with" field, please use Alt+Enter or type in [Line break]. If you have any difficulties and need further assistance with your task, please send us a screenshot with your string sample to support@ablebits.com so that we'll help you better.
Thank you.
