Using Wildcards in Criteria
Match partial text with asterisk and question mark wildcards.
When Exact Matches Are Not Enough
So far your criteria matched a value exactly. But real data is messy. You might want every product code that starts with AB, or every job title that contains the word Manager.
Wildcards let you match partial text inside SUMIF, COUNTIF, and AVERAGEIF. Two special characters do all the work: the asterisk and the question mark.
Meet the Two Wildcards
There are exactly two:
*the asterisk matches any number of characters, including none?the question mark matches exactly one character
You place them inside the quoted criteria text. Everything you have learned about quotes and the ampersand still applies.
All lessons in this course
- Summing by Criteria With SUMIF
- Counting by Criteria With COUNTIF
- Averaging by Criteria With AVERAGEIF
- Using Wildcards in Criteria