IF Function Help with Wildcard

[KuraiChikara]

Hello,
I am trying to incorporate the wildcard "*" into an IF function and I'm not sure what's wrong so I will break down what I am attempting to do.

Process:
In column A I could have various days of the week formats that go from Friday to Thursday and they look like this
F--MTWR
FY--TWR
FYS--WR
etc, etc.

I already utilize a COUNT IF function with a wildcard to help me count weeks that might have an M for Monday or T for Tuesdays.
In my three week examples above, using this formula =COUNTIF($A$1:$A$3,"*M*") does return a 1, because only 1 of those days has an M for Monday.

My problem
I'm now trying to use a similar wildcard process in an IF statement, but I can't seem to get it to work.

If column A1 has the following day of the week in it F--MTWR
I'm trying to us an IF statement to place certain days of the week if they contain certain letters.

In column B1 I put in the formula =IF(A1="*M*",A1,"") but I just get a blank placement.

For me, to help understand excel, I verbalize the problem: If cell A1 contains an M, put in the contents of A1, otherwise if not M, put blank.
The result however that I receive is blank.

 

[Fluff]

You cannot use wildcards in IF like that, try

=IF(ISNUMBER(SEARCH("M",A1)),A1,"")

 

[KuraiChikara]

That works, thank you very much.

My biggest issue with excel is I understand it pretty well but still not well enough.
Because I know understanding the requirements of each argument is key like equality/inequality formulas or functions that return a boolean function and I usually can't break excel that far down which is why I ask for help.

I'm still trying to learn but I get frustrated when one function works in a certain setup and a different function will not work with the same setup.
Thank you again.

 

[Fluff]

You're welcome & thanks for the feedback.

I get frustrated when one function works in a certain setup and a different function will not work with the same setup.

I know what you mean.