Excel Column Text Filter - Whole Word Only

[Boomer72]

I have a sheet that has a text description column that holds paragraphs of text.

When I text filter using contains on that column for a word such as "plan", I get cells that contain words like: explanation, plans, planning, unplanned.

How can I use the text filter without getting the additional words.

My simple solution was to add a space before and after the word " plan ", but it is not recognizing the blank spaces.

Thanks so much!~

 

[kevin9999]

I don't think you can do it in one step with AutoFilter. See here for one solution to a similar problem. It would involve using a helper column however.

 

[Peter_SSs]

You could use vba to filter but if going with the helper column then you do not need a user-defined function as suggested in the above link
You can do it like this, put the word you want to filter on as the heading of the helper column (or in any other cell), copy the formula from row 2 down and filter on TRUE

22 03 22.xlsm
	C	D
1	Hdr	plan
2	Plan ahead	TRUE
3	Good planning	FALSE
4	Heavy goods were involved	FALSE
5	A good day is one with a plan	TRUE
AF Word

Cell Formulas
Range	Formula
D2:D5	D2	=ISNUMBER(SEARCH(" "&D$1&" "," "&C2&" "))

If you then want to filter on "good", enter that in the header & re-filter on TRUE